


Gotham's Red Fox

by Runespour



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Coffee Lover Tim Drake, Coffee Shop Owner Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Guardian Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Hurt/Comfort, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Marinette and Jason are my brOTP, Secret Identity, Tim Drake Needs a Break, and sleep
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2020-12-20 22:22:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21064148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runespour/pseuds/Runespour
Summary: Hawkmoth is gone and Paris is safe. A victory four years in the making is not without cost however, and Marinette has paid dearly for her victory. As the new guardian, it's time for a fresh start away from Paris. It turns out that there is a lot more to being a Guardian than just fighting Hawkmoth. Ladybug and Hawkmoth have been far too public with their miraculous and its time for the godly power of creation to fade back into legend. Unfortunately, Marinette can't sit still and certainly cannot overlook crimes happening around her. Can she be a superhero, while staying in the shadows, and balancing her new duties as the guardian? Maybe not, but she may have some new friends to help her along the way.





	1. The End of an Era

The fire roared to life, spreading from the lighter, following the dark stain of fluid across countless files, pictures, charts, and a giant map of Paris. The tangled mass of different colored yarn and pins was the first to disintegrate in the growing flames. Marinette watched dispassionately as four years of tireless work, investigation, and planning were consumed. She had completed her task. Hawkmoth was gone. Now Ladybug needed to disappear as well.

A bright yellow flash drew her attention from the blaze. Across the burning pile of evidence, stood Chloe Bourgeois, having just turned back from Queen Bee. Marinette struggled to draw some sort of feeling from the numbness within as Chloe embraced her kwami.

“I’ll miss you, Pollen. Thank you so much for being my partner.” She murmured quietly. Marinette turned her head away, purposefully not listening to the whispered goodbyes they shared. The moment was too private, too intimate, and Marinette was done with feeling like an intruder, like a bad person. She glanced over to Ryuko, who stoically watched the blaze without comment, then over to Viperion, who was lightly fingering his harp loosing a quiet yet dissonant sound.

Ryuko moved first, going around the fire to tightly hug Chloe, murmuring a goodbye as they embraced. Next, Viperion moved to envelop Chloe in a melancholy goodbye. As Viperion finally released her, Marinette felt her feet move, taking her to stand in front of Chloe. Marinette hesitated, staring into Chloe’s watering eyes unsurely. Chloe’s eyes hardened and Marinette found herself hunching inward slightly, bracing herself for Chloe’s words. Without meaning to, she found herself breaking eye contact and looking away.

“Oh screw this,” Chloe muttered angrily a moment before her weight slammed into Marinette, bowling her over and wrapping her in a desperate hug.

“It wasn’t your fault. I don’t blame you Ladybug. No matter what anyone says, your a hero. You saved Paris, you saved my mom, y-you saved me. Not just from the-. Not just from that. I’m a better person because of you. You inspired me, and Ryuko, and Viperion, and all of Paris. Anyone who doesn’t see that is just hurting. It wasn’t your fault. None of this was. It was Hawkmoth’s fault. We wouldn’t have survived this without you. No one would have.” Chloe buried her face in Marinette’s shoulder, and she froze as tears began to stain her supposedly impermeable costume.

“I- I don’t” Marinette started, shocking even herself as her voice failed her. She belatedly brought her arms up to awkwardly comfort the distressed Parisian.

“It’s okay. I know. Thank you Ladybug. If you ever need anything at all, don’t hesitate to reach out. Please.” Chloe murmured as she pulled away and tried to stand up straighter.

“Goodbye Pollen.” Chloe whispered, giving the kwami one last kiss on the cheek, before removing the hair comb and gently placing it the small jewelry box that it had been delivered to her in. Marinette found herself at a loss for words as Chloe reached out, took her limp hand, and tucked the box into it.

“Take care of him, and take care of yourself too. You’re Ladybug. Don’t you dare let this defeat you.” With that, she reached up and kissed her on the cheek. Smiling sadly, she turned and walked away, exiting through a door off to the side of the empty warehouse that they stood in.

Numbly, Marinette took the box and tucked it into the compartment in her yoyo. She turned back toward the superheroes. Ryuko and Viperion locked eyes in a silent conversation before embracing, the fire still burning behind them. They murmured their goodbyes and then Viperion turned away, giving them his back. In a flash of red, Kagami Tsurugi stood before her.

“It has been an honor Longg-san” She spoke proudly to her kwami, they bowed to each other once, and without another word, she pulled the choker free and returned him to his box. Kagami turned back to Marinette and bowed deeply.

“I know that this didn’t end how any of us had hoped, but I do not regret this. It has been an honor Ladybug. Never lose your spirit. You are stronger than all of us. You gave me strength.” She embraced Marinette, and this time Marinette was more prepared to return it. This hug was fierce and final compared to Chloe’s desperate longing. Kagami’s eyes remained dry and sure as she pressed the box into Marinette's hand and walked out.

All that remained now was a waning fire and Viperion. He turned back and smiled gently. Without a word, Luka Couffaine wrapped her in his gentle, kind embrace.

“Your melody is so sad,” he murmured into her ear.

“It hasn’t lost its strength or beauty. Never give up Ladybug, you have the most beautiful melody I’ve ever heard and you should never hide it from the world.” He pulled back slightly as he spoke, so he could look her in the eye.

“If this is the last time I hear your melody, know that I do not ever regret becoming Viperion, my own song is so much stronger because of you. I hear the difference everyday in myself and in all of Paris, you made us better than we were.” As Luka murmured his goodbye, Marinette felt her eyes begin to well. Leaning forward, their lips touched, and Marinette closed her eyes, losing herself in the soft goodbye of Viperion. She would never know what he had seen, what horrors he had prevented. She would never know how many people he saw lost, dead, broken. She would only know his eyes. She would only see how they changed, battle after battle, hardening to horrors that he had protected the rest of them from. She would see the look in his eyes when a civilian died or was broken, and she would know that he had tried. For every battle she fought, he fought ten, again and again. Watching those around him break and realizing he could not save them all. Now, as she opened her eyes and looked into his, she could only see affection. Deep affection that she refused to look deeper into, refused to acknowledge what else was there. She burdened those eyes when she gave him his miraculous. She brought him into this. Marinette brought all of them into this.

“I could go with you.” Luka whispered, offering his loyalty when he should be running. Luka should be running far away from her and the bad luck she brought into his life. Marinette smiled softly.

“You have a life here, a career, a sister, and a mother. Thank you, Luka, but I need to do this alone.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but Luka heard her. He would always hear her voice, even when no one else did. He would always respect her choices.

“Goodbye Ladybug. Goodbye Sass.” Brushing a hand over his kwami, they nodded to each other one last time, and he removed the bracelet. After tucking the miraculous into its box he held it out to her and waited patiently for her to accept it with shaking hands before kissing her lightly on the cheek and walking out.

Alone, Marinette turned back to the slowly dying fire. Ash floated through the air, brushing past her lazily as it made its way toward a broken skylight above. Four years. Four years' worth of desperate fighting, resistance and bloodshed were over. Paris was safe. Hawkmoth was gone. Marinette could feel something tug within her. It was pulling her toward the ocean. Time passed as she stared at the slowing dying fire, the last proof of her battle for Paris vanishing into ash. There was nothing left for her here now. In the morning, she would board a plane for America. Master Fu’s final mission was complete. She would officially begin her life as the new Guardian of the Miraculous and find her own mission. But for this moment, she simply stood there, watching ashes drift into the night sky.


	2. A New Start

_“As a guardian, your instincts will never fail you. You must trust in them to lead you when you are lost and to guide you even when they go against everything your brain is telling you. They are your most powerful tool Marinette.”_

When Master Fu had told her that her instincts would guide her, Marinette hadn’t realized how literal Master Fu was being. During her seven-hour flight to New York, she had gradually felt the tug in her chest get stronger. It was almost like a compass. Now that she had landed, she just knew she had passed her destination and would need to travel back closer to the ocean. As she studied a map in the central train station, she was fairly certain that her goal was Gotham, at least temporarily. The train ticket hadn’t been nearly as terrifying to purchase as the plane ticket had been. The teller had taken one look at her passport and moved on. The teller never even questioned her name, Marinette Tomson.

At the time, Marinette had been shocked that Master Fu knew how to get ahold of fake identification, and even more so that he wanted to teach her how as well. Now, she was just grateful. Getting paperwork that marked her as eighteen, and marked her as having an American father made it far easier to gain entry into the US. Master Fu had left her with a sizeable cache of money and resources to establish her own guardian sanctuary wherever she chose. She also had the money left to her by her parents, but she wasn’t touching that with a ten-foot pole. Either way, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was long gone, and Marinette Tomson is ready to start fresh.

An announcement cut through her daze, informing her that her train was ready to be boarded. Grabbing her lone backpack, she shrugged it over her shoulder and stepped aboard. After finding her seat and settling, she unzipped her backpack slightly and peeked inside. Her clothes were undisturbed, hiding the octagonal box containing the miraculous and the tome of the miraculous. Tikki peered up at her and gave an encouraging smile, waving a hand to show that she was fine. There were too many people around to risk speaking to her, so she reclosed the backpack and settled in for the ride.

~

Despite being nearly asleep, she knew the moment that the train began to approach Gotham. A sense of foreboding made her hair stand on edge and she was instantly awake and paying much closer attention to her surroundings. Something dark was in the air and whatever it was, was not good at all. Looking out the window, Gotham was clearly visible in the distance, and they were approaching fast. The closer Marinette, the worse the darkness became. It wasn’t until they had entered the city limits that Marinette came to a horrifying realization.

The entire city was covered in a miasma of misfortune.

As a guardian in general, she has an instinctive feel for the natural balance. As a guardian with a strong connection to the Ladybug miraculous, her senses for the balance between luck and misfortune were especially fine-tuned. Fu had taught her that if enough good or bad things happened, in one location, it would naturally shift the balance in that place. If over decades, enough good things happened, the balance would shift unnaturally into an extremely lucky place and eventually pull the good luck away from other locations. On the opposite spectrum, if enough misfortune and bad luck happened in one location, it would become a beacon of misfortune. Fu had described both sides of the coin as equally dangerous long term. For the entire city to be covered in such a dense miasma of misfortune, the balance had to be shifted in an extremely dangerous way. Should the miasma of this city get much worse, it could threaten the balance on a much grander scale.

Each Guardian protects the balance. Master Fu’s mission had been to help Europe recover from the unbalance caused by World War I and later World War II. He spent the better part of a century working to restore the balance in Europe only for Hawkmoth to appear and nearly destroy his life’s work. His last wish had been for Marinette to recover the lost miraculous and prevent the balance from being disturbed by Hawkmoth any further.

As she took in the miasma, heavier than anything she had ever felt before, Marinette realized that she would be spending at least a decade here to restore the balance that had been lost in this city. She waited impatiently for the train to reach its destination. Marinette needed to have a conversation with Tikki and Wayzz as soon as possible. She didn’t even know where to start with this place.

Shouldering her backpack, Marinette rushed to exit the train. Smells of rot and waste immediately bombarded her senses. Graffiti lined every inch of the walls and flickering lights illuminated the dreary space. If she had thought the miasma was bad on the train, it was a thousand times worse outside of it. It was so bad that Marinette had to reevaluate her assessment of the situation. This place was not in danger of tipping the balance. It was more than likely already tipping the balance on a much grander scale in a dangerous direction. No wonder the pull had been so insistent.

In a slight daze, Marinette wandered up the stairs and worked her way out of the train station. It was still dark when she exited the train station, but the first red rays of the morning light were beginning to peek through the toxic smog, skyscrapers, and gloom of Gotham. The city looked like it was on fire, and Marinette had to take a moment to slow down. Planning to save the balance of the world from this city’s misfortune would have to wait a moment. Pulling her sketchpad and a pencil from her bag, she began to sketch. There was so much to take in. The grand architecture, imposing citizens, and the city’s rise from the ashes that set this morning ablaze into something bigger than any one person. It wasn’t until the sun had lost the colors of its early ascent that Marinette managed to put her pencil down. With a much clearer head, she made her way into the city.

Despite her initial reservations, she was fairly certain that the train had let her off in one of the nicer areas of Gotham. Skyscrapers containing office buildings sprawled around her with people in suits rushing past her on their way to work. She pulled out her phone and frowned. There was no service and no signal. Damn. She was going to need to get a new one. Without any form of direction or idea of where to go in her new home, Marinette let her feet take her. She wandered aimlessly, taking in the sighs and trying to get accustomed to the heavy miasma that overshadowed everything.

Eventually, she found a large central intersection that was absolutely crowded with people. On the street corner closest to her, there was a tourist information stand. How lucky, Marinette chuckled to herself and walked over to it. It was a large triangular-shaped advertisement board covered in graffiti. There were empty plastic slots where there had once been brochures, and half ripped posters clung stubbornly over a giant map. While a large portion of the map was covered, Marinette found one point of interest: Gotham City Public Library. That seemed like a great place to start. She carefully found her location and figured out a general route despite half the map being obscured.

A short walk later had her once again admiring Gotham’s ridiculously amazing architecture. Even with the miasma, she could definitely get used to this. The library made its way into her sketchbook and one casual librarian’s outfit later, she was ready to enter. To her surprise, the librarian greeted her with a reminder that stealing books was illegal and she would be prosecuted, and just because the computers were public, it didn’t mean that they would not be able to trace any illegal activities back to her. When she tried to get a library card, the librarian told her to just make an address up if she didn’t have one because it was what everyone else did honestly geezlouis.

The inside of the library was just as spectacular as the outside, but Marinette didn’t let it distract her this time. She had two goals, find a hotel for the night and longer, and secondly, find a phone store. The computer area was much nicer than she had expected it to be. Sleek black computers sat in neat rows with little table dividers giving each user a modicum of privacy. A small placard informed her that the computers had been donated courtesy of Wayne Enterprises.

A short search later had her printing off directions to a fairly nice hotel, a phone store, and a map of museums in Gotham. With the initial tasks complete, Marinette searched local news and tried to find recent events as well as a general history of Gotham. It didn’t take long to realize why this city has such a strong miasma. The amount of violent crime in this place was _staggering_. The more she read, the more horrified she became. Wanting a break from the tragedies that befell this town, Marinette switched gears to look at Wayne Industry’s charitable endeavors in the city. This led down a rabbit hole that highlighted Brucie Wayne, playboy, billionaire extraordinaire. Despite the bad reputation, Bruce Wayne had done a lot of good. Marinette was just beginning to recoup her mood, she found an article about the deaths of his parents and second son. Well, it was definitely time for a break.

Getting up with a sigh, Marinette stretched and logged out. She decided to take a trip to the fiction section, maybe a book could clear her thoughts. As she passed the seating area something made her pause. There was a man seated at one of the tables reading a small paperback. A hood concealed most of his face, but there was something about him. . . Marinette knew far better than to ignore any feeling she got, so she took a moment to concentrate, grounding herself in a deeper focus, before taking a second look at the man.

What she saw was horrifying.

The young man had misfortune coating him, clinging to every bit of his body, in a way that spoke of truly terrible things happening to him and around him. That wasn’t the worst though. A sickly neon green miasma wrapped around the man in twisted cords, the vile remnants terrible magic coming to pass on the man. It was a tangled mess hanging off every inch of him, loosely in some areas and wrapped tightly in others. Several bands were wrapped so tightly around his neck, she wondered how he found the air to breathe.

For only a moment, Marinette wanted to leave. To get as far away from this man and the perverse magic surrounding him. That was until he looked up. She met the man’s blue-green eyes and froze. Even as they narrowed in suspicion and annoyance, those eyes were not the eyes of a monster.

“Need something?” The man asked, his tone hostile.

“I- Are- Are you okay?” Marinette stumbled for words, still concentrating on him, she tried to find his aura, buried deep underneath all of the misfortune and green magic. She needed to see if it had corrupted him. The man slowly bookmarked his page and closed his book, never breaking her gaze.

“What?” He still sounded very annoyed and suspicious, but he also sounded slightly confused now.

“I was just-” She cut off mid-sentence as she finally caught a glimpse of his aura. Despite being weighed down and covered in all the misfortune, it was a vibrant red, full of passion and righteous fury, determination to fight any odds. It was the exact same shade as her ladybug costume. None of the misfortune and suffering had corrupted the beautiful aura, but that _vile sickly green had_. The cords of magic had cut into and through the aura, leaving raw severed edges tinted green. Marinette was going to be sick. She had never seen such an unnatural perversion affecting someone’s aura before. Remembering a bathroom by the computers, she booked it back.

Not stopping when she heard a muffled curse and footsteps behind her, she burst through the doors to the single-stall bathroom and lost her lunch into the toilet. After a moment of dry heaving, the voice of the man spoke directly behind her in a strange mix of baffled, offended, suspicious.

“So. . . What the fuck?”


	3. A New Friend

Marinette coughed wetly and glanced back. With her concentration broken, the layers of miasma were no longer visible to her. Seeing the man underneath all the corruption her first thought was _holy tall_. The man that stood in the doorway was at least 180 cm and huge. Somewhere, a distant part of her mind locked onto this and thought: _he would be an excellent model._ He was frowning at her with a vaguely offended look.

“Well?” He prompted impatiently.

“Um hi. My name’s Marinette and I’m a. . . Masseuse! A professional masseuse who just moved here. I noticed that you have really bad posture. _Like Really Bad Posture_. If left untreated, who knows what kind of damage it could do to you. Your shoulders, neck, spine, legs, feet, hands, could all be in danger! Serious danger! So dangerous in fact, that I’m willing to give you a free massage. No charge at all. And once I’m done, you’ll feel worlds better. Trust me on this I’m an expert.” Marinette could not control the words coming out of her mouth. Where had all this bullshit come from? Sure Master Fu used massages as an excuse to remove the taint from people in the past, but he had an actual practice devoted to ancient Chinese medicinal practices. As she spoke, sitting on the ground next to a toilet, looking up at the quickly growing look of sheer incredulity, Marinette once again wondered why she chose to speak to people. This didn’t even make the list of top ridiculous bullshit excuses that she’s used to cover for her miraculous extracurriculars. Mr. Tall guy was about as impressed as her mom had been when she’d tried to tell her that she missed school because she had to take the hamster to the vet.

She didn’t own a hamster.

“What.”

“Your posture is like super bad and it could be super dangerous to leave it like that.” Marinette had learned through painful experience that trying to come up with a new excuse to cover your original terrible excuse did not help. Ever.

“My posture.” Mr. Tall Guy said slowly, incredulity starting to shift into something judgey that Marinette did not need in her life.

“That’s right. But do not fear, I, Marinette D-Tomson can help you. With my services, you’ll feel better in no time. First one’s free.” Marinette tried to imbue some Ladybug confidence into her voice. People always believed Ladybug. Even when her excuses were terrible. The look on Ryuko’s face when she convinced half the population of Paris that mullets were the work of an ancient akuma and should be banned in Paris in the name of justice (and totally not because they were a crime against fashion) had been beautiful.

“You want to give me a massage?” Mr. Tall Guy’s fingers twitched for an empty space on his thigh.

“Yup, for free.” Marinette got back to her feet. A gave him a winning smile.

“You’ll feel loads better.” She promised. To her alarm, Mr. Tall guy frowned deeper and stepped forward into her space.

“Um wha-” Marinette started to backpedal, when he grabbed her chin gently and pushed her face up to look in her eyes more closely. At this distance, she could see his lovely blue eyes had a green tint to them which was a really bad sign. Eyes are a window to the soul. They shouldn’t be corrupted by the magic.

“What are you on?” He asked alarmingly serious.

“What.” It was Marinette’s turn to be baffled.

“Do you know what you took?” He asked frowning as he reached forward and touched her pulse.

“I- wait do you mean drugs?!” And now it was her turn to be incredulous. She shoved his hand away, but his face had become more alarmed. Shit. Long-term continuous exposure to a miraculous had some side effects. Increased reflexes, strength, balance, speed, all led to an increased metabolism and heart rate. An increased heart rate that was probably working overtime after seeing Mr. Tall Guy’s aura.

“Shit, you said you’re new to Gotham? Don’t you know better to take shit from strangers? Who gave it to you?” Mr. Tall Guy was looking actually concerned for her now.

“I’m not on drugs! I’m trying to help you.” Marinette started to insist.

“And I really appreciate kid. How old are you?” Mr. Tall guy asked starting to look angry. Strangely, Marinette could tell that it was not directed toward her, but toward whoever he thought drugged her. What is her life even right now? Why. just. Why.

“I’m not on anything and I’m not a kid.” Marinette couldn’t even be mad at him, he seemed to honestly want to help her.

“Course’ your not. There somewhere safe you go and sit this out? Trusted adult? Friend you can go to?” Mr. Tall Guy continued.

“I’m not a kid, I’m not on drugs, and I do not need to go ‘sit this out’ what I _need_ is for you to take me seriously.” Apparently using air quotes was not helping her prove her point. Mr. Tall Guy sighed a deep put upon sigh.

“Look, kid, if you're not gonna let me help, is there someone I can call to come get you? You probably shouldn’t be alone right now.” Marinette knew that Mr. Tall Guy was trying to placate her, but there was no way for him to know that hi swords would have the opposite effect. Something in her snapped, and suddenly Marinette needed space. Space that Mr. Tall Guy was currently occupying.

“I’m _not a kid_” she hissed, reaching into her backpack with a trembling hand, she pulled out her temporary ID, shoving it in his face.

“I’m 18 years old and I am fine on my own okay? I don’t need anyone. Not you. Not a _friend_. And certainly not a _trusted guardian_. So you can take your condescending attitude and shove it. I’m not on drugs, but I am _trying to help you_. So please just. . .” Marinette felt her eyes watering, but like everyone else from Paris, she was a master at boxing up her feelings and shoving them away where they couldn’t be used to akumatise you. She glared up at the man who had a weird look on his face.

“You're definitely not from Gotham.” Whatever his face was before, it had shifted into one of _deep concern_. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“Look k- Look. I’m going to give you some advice, here in Gotham, you don’t go around showing people anything that could be used to identify you, even fake IDs. You don’t even show them to cops until your back at the station and can confirm they aren’t fake, dirty, or getting ready to off you in an alley. And for the love of everything, _never_ tell anyone that your alone, _especially_ strange men who have you cornered in bathrooms.” As Mr. Tall Guy said this, he backed out, leaving an easy path to escape. Marinette felt her face flush a bright red. Mr. Tall Guy continued to speak, and Marinette kind of wished he would just stop.

“Please do not ever go up to strange men or women and offer them massages, they will definitely think its a sex thing. If a strange man follows you when you try to run away, punch him in the dick, seriously, just do it. I don’t know what made you think that you would be able to survive here, but whatever your hiding from, there are much safer places to hide than Gotham. Finally, _don’t take candy from strangers._” Marinette wasn’t sure her face had ever been this red in her life, though it probably had, Marinette tended to live life as a walking embarrassment. As Mr. Tall Guy spoke, his face remained serious and genuinely deeply concerned for her well being. When he finished, she realized something and replayed the conversation in her head just to make sure.

“Hey. My ID isn’t fake.” Marinette managed to muster up some indignation.

“Seriously, that's all you took away from everything I just said?” His look of deep concern seemed even more intense than before. What the heck?

“Well, I’m an adult who can take care of herself just fine, thank you very much. I’m not on drugs. And I’m not afraid of strange men. I could take you down any day of the week.” Marinette stepped into Mr. Tall Guy’s space this time, poking a finger into his chest as she spoke, glaring up at him with all the indignation she could muster. To her offense, Mr. Tall Guy looked horrified now, _on her behalf._

“Oh my g- Why would y- What did they give you? I’m retroactively adding ‘Do NOT ever pick fights with strange men twice your size’ to my list of things you should literally never do in Gotham.” Mr. Tall Guy looked so conflicted, staring down at her with disbelief, deep concern, horror, and a load of other emotions swirling around on his face. The embarrassment and indignation were starting to shift pure offense at this guy’s lack of faith in her abilities.

“Hey! I could totally take you.” Marinette insisted. Mr. Tall Guy stared at her for a long hard moment before he snorted, tried to cover his mouth, and then lost it. Deep bellowing laughter rocked him as he clenched his stomach and tried not to fall over, leaning against the wall for support. More offended outrage bloomed in her chest.

“Don’t laugh! I’m serious! I totally could!” Marinette insisted, but he just laughed harder. Marinette really wanted to just leave then and there, but couldn’t. She still needed to try and cleanse that magic from his aura. It probably was not something that she could achieve all at once either. She needed an in with this guy.

“Fine. Whatever. Hey, are you listening to me?” Mr. Tall Guy was coming down, but he was still chuckling, and seeing her annoyed face, made him chuckle harder. Marinette kicked him lightly in the shin. She was now going to call him Annoying Tall Guy in her head instead.

“Hey.”

“Alright, alright. Wow, I needed that.” He had settled into an amused smirk which made her kind of want to punch him, but the urge was small and easily ignored.

“I wasn’t kidding about the massage either, I’m thinking about setting up a practice here in Gotham.” Marinette had not, in fact, been thinking about setting up a practice here in Gotham but hey, she’d see. Annoying Tall Guy looked at her incredulously.

“Why would you think that could possibly work in Gotham?” He asked in disbelief.

“Why wouldn’t it?” Marinette countered, a little flummoxed. It had worked fine for Master Fu.

“Because Gothamites are the most jaded, paranoid, unsociable population you’ll ever meet and the idea of paying someone to touch you unprotected back is stupid of the highest order?” Annoying Tall Guy replied like it was the obvious thing. Marinette grumbled a light Japanese swear that Kagami had taught her.

“Seriously? Then what about. . . um, Food? How about a food store? Like a bakery or coffee shop? Would people go for that here?” Marinette was thinking out loud now, she needs a way to cleanse the citizens without them allowing her to touch them. She had translated some potions from the Miraculous Grimoire, and she knew there were plenty more for her to pick apart in there as well. Maybe she could treat people via baked goods? Coffee? Annoying Tall Guy looked at her in semi-disbelief.

“Why would you _want_ to start a business here? This is the crime capital of the world, its a good way to lose everything you own.” Why was Annoying Tall Guy trying so hard to talk her out of this? It’s a perfectly logical plan.

“I’m not that worried about money I’ll be fine.” Marinette tried to assure him but it seemed to have the opposite effect.

“Seriously? Okay here’s another rule: Never tell anyone in Gotham you have money. Like ever, that's how you get robbed and murdered in a dark alley. Don’t show, tell, or imply that you aren’t dead-ass broke like the rest of the city. In fact, you should really just leave the city altogether. Preferably before it gets dark.” Annoying Tall Guy shook his head, giving her a look that questioned her intelligence.

“I’m not leaving. I have plans. I’m going to set up a nice coffee shop, and it's going to go swimmingly. I’m not leaving town and I’m not going to get robbed in a dark alley. If you don’t want a massage, then you're invited to the grand opening of my coffee shop. First drink’s on the house for all of your super helpful advice.” Marinette was starting to get annoyed again. Annoying Tall Guy stared at her for a second, then snorted.

“Can’t say I’ve ever been politely told off and offered free coffee in the same sentence.”

“Well, I can’t say I have ever been accused of doing drugs and told to leave the city before either.” Something told Marinette that she was not going to be able to treat Annoying Tall Guy today, but she would certainly be seeing him around.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go find a place to set up my coffee shop, I think I’m going to call it Tikki’s Treats. Ooh, maybe I’ll sell macaroons.” Marinette was actually starting to get excited at the thought, it had been too long since she’d worked in the old bakery. This might be fun.

“Wait what? You literally just decided to open a shop and you're already naming it? I thought you had your heart set on being a masseuse?” Annoying Tall Guy was back to being baffled, it was a much better look on him than amused.

“Well now that I named it, I’m invested so it’s totally happening. Oh my gosh, I’ll be the owner so I can totally paint it Pink! And no one can tell me no! It’ll be soooo cute. Oh. my. Gosh. I could sell _pink macaroons_” Annoying Tall Guy started to look alarmed as Marinette clapped her hands excitedly.

“Wait. Maybe you should slow down-” Annoying Tall Guy started to say, but Marinette was on a roll.

“This is a much better idea than a massage therapy place. Thanks Tall Guy. You aren’t as annoying as I thought. Oh, this will be fantastic.” Marinette was already pulling out her sketchbook when Annoying Tall Guy’s voice broke through her rapidly fading attention.

“Wait, what did you call me? Kid. No. You can’t open a pink coffee shop in Gotham, you’ll be eaten alive.” Marinette blinked back up at him.

“Tall Guy. Your tall and a guy, and you haven’t introduced yourself, so Tall Guy. Also, this is a great idea, so just watch me.” Marinette flipped open her sketchbook as she rushed over to an open table to start sketching her masterpiece.

“Hey kid no. You can call me Jason. Listen you dropped these- Are you kidding me?” Marinette looked up at the outraged tone of his voice. Annoying Tal-Jason was trailing behind her, with some papers in his hands.

“What the hell is this?” Jason demanded, waving the papers in her face. They were the directions to the hotel and phone store that she printed off. They must have fallen out of her bag when she pulled the sketchbook out.

“Umm directions?” Marinette wasn’t sure what the problem was. Jason made a pained noise.

“Are you telling me that you were planning on walking across Gotham by yourself? And- without a phone?!?!?” Jason’s voice was doing a funny high pitched thing that she hadn’t heard before.

“Um yes? Can I have those back?” Marinette asked as she reached out for them.

“NO! You can’t just- You can’t just _walk across Gotham by yourself_.” Jason exclaimed.

“Well I walked here by myself, and that turned out fine. And it was dark then. It’s light out now so I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Marinette thought she sounded entirely reasonable, but judging by the pained possibly dying sound that Jason made, he had some problem with it. Oh hey, that deeply concerned look was back.

“How are you still alive?” He asked

“Because I can take care of myself? Like I told you earlier?” Marinette was already losing focus on this conversation because _pink coffee shop_ and _pink macaroons_. Plus, once she got the potions made, she’d be able to start cleansing people.

“Hey, you're from Gotham, right? Do you know anywhere off the top of your head that would be a great place for a coffee shop?” She looked back up from her sketchbook at Jason, and he looked like he was physically in pain and trying to find words.

“Are you okay? If your back hurts, that massage is still on the table.” Jason opened and closed his mouth a few times, before sighing deeply and sitting down next to her.

“Look. Marinette was it?” At her nod, he continued,

“Marinette. You can’t just- you can’t just wander around Gotham by yourself. Especially after dark. I don’t know how you survived your first trip, but you won’t be that lucky a second time. You can’t just set up a business here and expect it to go well. Because it won’t. It just won’t. Things in Gotham do not go well. Especially not for outsiders like you. I know first hand how ugly this city can be and you will not survive it when it comes for you. I’m sure you’d make a really great coffee shop but take that shit somewhere else. Like metropolis. I’m sure Metropolis would love to have a pink coffee shop.” Despite the serious tone and look, Marinette couldn’t help but notice him choke on the word pink. Repeatedly. Tabling that thought for a later argument, Marinette looked him directly in the eye.

“I’m not leaving. Believe it or not, I do actually have business in this town that I need to settle and can take care of myself. If your that concerned, come with me. I would love a native Gothamite’s help in picking out a location for my new store. From what I read, this city has a bunch of bats and birds protecting it, so once I have the shop, I’m sure I’ll be okay. I don’t have any plans to go out at night on a regular basis, so you really don’t need to worry about me. I’m an adult and I can defend myself if need be.” Marinette used her Ladybug voice as she spoke. This time, she thought she was pretty successful at being both serious and convincing. Maybe now he’d lay off. Jason was silent for a moment and the two locked eyes. He stared for a long hard moment and she met his gaze, trying to convey her determination. Then, he let out a string of colorful swears that left Marinette’s cheeks a little pink.

“You’re gonna do this whether I go with ya or not. Arnt ya.” He grumbled, glaring at her fiercely. Marinette nodded with a small smile.

“Dammit. Fine. Let's go find you a hotel that isn’t run by the mafia and find a phone store that isn’t a front for pot distribution.” Marinette beamed and fist-pumped.

“Yes! What are we waiting for let's go!” Marinette jumped from her seat and started toward the exit.

“Wait.” Jason’s flat voice called after her, and she looked back to see him waving her sketchbook that she had left at the table at her. Blushing slightly, she walked back and stuffed the book in her bag.

“Now can we go?” Marinette asked with just as much enthusiasm. Jason stared at her for a moment.

“You realize I’m a stranger right?”

“I think we’ve moved past that.”

“Um no. You don’t know anything about me.”

“Well, I know you're super nice even when you're being a jerk.”

“No. I’m not nice. I could be tricking you.”

“I think you’re just trying to hide the fact that you’re a big softie.”

“I’m really not. I could be a serial killer for all you know.”

“I’m a pretty good judge of character.”

“You really aren’t. I could be a murderer, an assassin, you don’t know shit.”

“I’ve actually met some a couple assassins before. One of them was really nice. He complimented my macaroons.”

“I could be- wait. What the fuck? When?”

“Don’t worry about it, Jason. Besides, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”

“Um no. It’s not. We’re not friends.”

“We totally are.”

“We are not. Also, don’t try to distract me. What assassin?”

“I said don’t worry about it.

“I’m not letting this go.”

“Don’t worry about it and yeah we’re totally friends now. Just wait until you try my macaroons.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this is a mess. This might have been a little OOC for Jason, but in my head he still thinks that she's a minor possibly on drugs that she didn't consent to taking, and either way should not be alone in Gotham. What do you think? This is my first writing fics in ML fandom and DCU fandom, I really want to see Mari and Jason interact so there's going to be a lot of that in the future. I have no beta so any mistakes are my own, so let me know if you see any obvious mistakes.


	4. A New Home

"Speaking in French"

"Speaking in English

An incessant buzzing was the first thing Marinette noticed as she woke. Still groggy, she pawed at the annoying noise until it stopped. Perfect. Sweet blessed silence. As the last vestiges of consciousness vanished, a voice brought her back.

“Oy. Get up.”

“Leave me alone Tikki let me sleep,” Marinette grumbled and rolled over. The fabric beneath her was coarse and nothing like her bed, but Marinette didn’t actually care. She’d figure out where she was later.

“Hey, I don’t speak french, quit bumming and get your ass up.” A large hand clamped down on her shoulder and shook her lightly.

“10 more minutes,” Marinette muttered and swatted sleepily at the hand. It vanished and Marinette let the sweet embrace of sleep take her. At least, until the blanket covering her was yanked off viciously, causing her to fall onto the floor in a flailing pile of limbs and shrieks.

“What the hell!” Marinette shouted glaring up at an entirely too smug Jason. What was he doing here? Oh. Right. It was his couch she was sleeping on.

“Wakey wakey sleeping beauty.” He grinned and tossed the blanket in his hand at her face. Still not quite awake, Marinette squawked and flailed again as she was enshrouded in darkness before falling still. Actually. This was kind of okay, she could fall asleep like this. . . A barefoot prodded her ribs. Damnit.

“Hey don’t sleep on the floor you don’t know where its been.”

“Why do you hate me? I thought we were friends.” Marinette moaned as the foot kept poking her. That earned her a snort.

“I already told you, we're not friends. You’re just a bum who followed me home.” The foot collided with a particularly sensitive bundle of nerves on her side, and she made a noise. The foot paused for only a moment before poking her in the same spot with deadly accuracy as she inarticulately tried to fight off both the blanket on top of her and the absolute asshole tormenting her.

“I did not follow you home. We went to seven different hotels and you wouldn’t let me stay at any of them. Stawwwwp. Why do you hate me?” Marinette groaned again as she gave up on life, going limp and giving up fighting the dastardly foot. That got her another snort.

“Not a morning person are you? Did you fall back asleep? Hey. hey... hey. . . did you fall back asleep? Do I need to get some ice? Neither one of us is going to be happy if I have to dump water on you. Well, I will. But you won’t. Marinette? Ya know what? I’m getting the water.” When the foot vanished, Marinette actually started to feel concerned. He wouldn’t. Would he? Shit, he totally would. Marinette’s danger sense went off and she rolled blindly to the side as a splash sounded next to her followed by a sound of annoyance. After a short moment of struggling, Marinette removed the blanket from her person and glared up at Jason who was standing over her with an empty cup, and a raised eyebrow.

“Did you just try to dump water on me?” She demanded.

“Yup.” He replied with a smirk, popping the ‘p’

“Are you going to get up this time? Cause I’m not gonna miss twice, your lucky I missed once.” Marinette narrowed her eyes menacingly and Jason raised his other eyebrow.

“Well?”

“You suck,” Marinette grumbled and stumbled to her feet. She grabbed her new phone, her bag, and made her way over to the bathroom. As soon as she closed the door, Tikki popped out of the bag. Marinette motioned for her not to talk, and turned the shower on, before nodding to Tikki.

“Are you sure about him Marinette?” Tikki whispered as Marinette stripped and hopped in the shower.

“Course I am. You know I’m a great judge of character. Can you go get Wayzz? We’re not going to have long to chat.” Tikki nodded and vanished into the bag as Marinette took an experimental sniff of Jason’s shampoo before shrugging, good enough.

“Where are we Marinette? This place feels-” Wayzz appeared in the shower next to her, speaking quietly, good Tikki must have at least told him to be quiet.

“In Gotham, crime capital of the world. This is where the pull brought me so I’m going to set up my sanctuary here. I wanted your and Tikki’s opinion before I got started. I’ve never built a sanctuary before and I’m thinking a coffee shop would be the best bet here. I’ll cleanse people with potions rather than physically like Fu did. From what I heard, that won’t fly here.” Marinette tried to lay out what had happened since they left Paris as quickly and quietly as possible while washing her hair. When had it gotten so long? It was near halfway down her back.

“Tikki do you think I should cut my hair?” Marinette broke topic causing Wayzz to sputter, Tikki picked up the non sequitur with practiced experience.

“No Marinette! It’s so pretty you should grow it out!” Tikki informed her with vehemence.

“Long hair wouldn’t work with my old costume design. But I’ll need a new one here anyway.” Marinette pondered slowly, Tikki squeaked excitedly.

“Oooh, are you going to design it yourself? Or just let the magic go with what feels right?” Tikki asked.

“I think I’ll design it myself this time. Speaking of, Wayzz, Tikki, I think that I should use a different Miraculous as my main here. I don’t need to purify Akuma any more so it shouldn’t be a problem. What do you two think?” The two kwami went silent in contemplation for a moment.

“It would probably be for the best. And I think a coffee shop would be a great sanctuary for this city if the people are so against physical contact. But potions are a lot of work to brew and for you to maintain them, you’ll have to balance your time carefully.” Wayzz cautioned. Tikki remained silent a little bit longer and Marinette let her get her thoughts together as she hopped out of the shower and began drying off.

“You would still keep my earrings on you, right? You are strongest with them, and I don’t like the idea of you not being at your strongest when living in such a dangerous city.” Tikki finally asked in a quiet whisper.

“Of course I would. I don’t think I could survive five minutes without you.” Marinette whispered back as she pulled out her only change of clothes.

“Then I think that its a really smart idea, even if it makes me sad that I won’t be your partner in the same way I was before,” Tikki said.

“Well you’d still be my partner, I was thinking that I could merge you and one of the other miraculous to create a whole new image that won’t be connected to Paris,” Marinette replied, watching the kwami perk up as she finished changing.

“Oh, that sounds fun! Who were you thinking of?” Tikki asked at the same time as Wayzz said,

“Are you sure that is a good idea Marinette? Using two miraculous simultaneously, especially with one of them being the ladybug, is an immense strain to have on a regular basis.” Wayzz cautioned.

“I know it’ll be tough, but I’m one of the strongest miraculous wielders Fu had ever heard of, he said so himself. I know I can handle it, and if it becomes too much then I’ll stop. I know my limits Wayzz, that’s why Fu made me the next Guardian, I’m smart.” Marinette addressed Wayzz first, wanting his approval before confirming her plan.

“I trust your judgment Marinette. If you say you can handle it, then I believe you. Just be careful. Now, who were you thinking of merging the ladybug with?” Wayzz asked.

“The fox actually, I think that will be best for keeping a low profile,” Marinette whispered as she finished getting dressed and pulled out the miraculous box. Tikki squealed excitedly, and Wayzz nodded approvingly.

“The fox is an excellent choice, I approve. Good luck Marinette, don’t hesitate to call on me if whenever you need advice. You’re doing great.” Wayzz smiled at her once more before vanishing into the box. Marinette put on the fox miraculous and let Tikki bring Trixx up to speed while she repacked her bag, and brushed her hair out. Once Tikki and Trixx were hidden safely within her bag, she stepped back out of the bathroom.

Following Jason’s voice into the kitchen, she found him with a phone tucked between his ear and shoulder while he washed dishes. Looking up at her arrival, he motioned to the table where a plate with toast and eggs sat cooling. She smiled and mouthed a thank you before sitting down and digging in.

“No, you do not need to come check on me. Just because I’m too busy to help with whatever bullshit you got yourself mixed up in does not mean I’m dying. Well, fuck you too. I do so have a life. If it’s that bad buck up and call Dick. or Cass. or literally anyone else. Now fuck off. I’m busy. Oh and one more thing, I will be calling Dick later to make sure you got help. If I call and he hasn’t heard from you, he will lose his shit and fly out to go find you anyway so you’re better off just asking him yourself. Of course, I’m a petty bastard, what else did you expect when you called me?” Jason hung up the phone and turned back to her.

“Is everything okay? Thanks for the food by the way.” Marinette asked as she munched on her food. Jason nodded and plopped down in the chair across from her.

“Yup, just some family bullshit. Nothing too exciting. Now, are you ready to find your own damn place so you can quit bumming at mine?” He asked testily and stole the remaining toast off her plate.

“I don’t know, will you let me find a place? Or is this gonna be a repeat of the seven hotels we went to yesterday?” Marinette asked pulling her plate closer to fend off any further theft.

“Hey that was different, none of them were good places to spend even the night. I did you a fucking favor and you should be grateful for my generosity.” Jason huffed as he munched on the toast.

“Mmmhmm, and I felt real grateful, at least up until you tried to dump water on my defenseful person.” Marinette gave him the evil eye, she wasn’t going to forget that any time soon and paused.

“Defenseless? Previously grateful? What was I even trying to say?” Marinette mumbled to herself. Ignoring her confused tangent, Jason continued.

“Hey, it's past noon. Were you plannin on sleepin the whole damn day away?” Jason asked as he finished the toast and eyed the remaining eggs on her plate. Marinette put an arm between her plate and Jason.

“I would have been up in a couple minutes.” She defended herself. Jason snorted.

“Sure would that be before or after pigs fly?” Jason asked with a smirk. Marinette glared at him and glanced down at the plate, she was actually kind of full, damnit. She put the fork down and passed the plate over to Jason who frowned at her skinny frame suspiciously before eating the last couple bites.

“I would have been up soon, I’m just a little jetlagged.” Marinette pulled out her new phone and pulled up her emails as Jason took the plate over to the sink and started rifling through his fridge.

“Sure you are. So what’s your plan for today?” He asked as he pulled out some orange juice. He opened it and sniffed it carefully before pulling out a cup from his cupboards.

“Well, I emailed a. . . person I know, and they got back to me with a bunch of listings in Gotham that I could buy. I just need to check them out and make a choice. Then, depending on which one I choose, I’ll have to figure out what to do from there. My . . . person said that they’ll help me get the licenses that I’ll need. Depending on what I want, I’ll need a whole slew of them. So that’s where I’m at so far.” Marinette summarized as she checked her emails. Jason placed a cup of orange juice down in front of her. She hadn’t missed him sniffing the carton.

“What’re the addresses? I can tell right off the bat if the location is bad or not, from there, I could give you a ride over to check them out.” He plopped back down with a cup of coffee that was suspiciously not orange juice.

“What the expiration date on this?” She asked motioning toward the cup.

“It’s fine, drink it, you need vitamins and shit,” Jason replied taking a sip of his coffee. Locking eyes with him, she carefully took a sip of the orange juice. . . It tasted fine, but. She was still suspicious.

“Don’t give me that look. What do you think I did? Poison it?” Jason looked offended.

“Well I mean, you’re the one keep insisting you’re a bad guy,” Marinette commented as she gulped down the rest of the suspicious OJ. What doesn’t kill her will make her stronger and all that jazz. Jason raised an eyebrow.

“If you think it's poisoned why are you drinking it?” He asked

“Cause I need vitamins and shit?” Marinette replied with a raised eyebrow of her own.

“Damn right you do. Now locations. Read em off.” Jason demanded with a lazy wave of his hand and a sip of his coffee.

“Yes, your highness,” Marinette muttered sarcastically and started reading off the list.

~

“It’s perfect.” Marinette absolutely gushed.

“It’s a safety hazard is what it is,” Jason said dryly behind her. Marinette ignored him and gently touched the exposed brick.

“Don’t listen to him. You’re beautiful.” She whispered lovingly to the building around them.

“Seriously? This is the place you're stuck on? It’s a total dump.” Jason said from the doorway. Eyeing the beautiful hardwood floor directly beneath her feet as if it could capsize at any moment. It wouldn’t. It was too gorgeous to do such a thing. Jason just couldn’t see underneath the bit of grime that had developed over the past decade, it was an easy fix. She would show him soon enough.

“Seriously. This place has character. Jason the _character_.”

“Marinette. No.”

“Jason yes. Marinette ignored Jason’s next retort. All she wanted to do was take in the full glory of her beautiful future coffee shop. One wall was covered in giant boarded-up windows that were going to bring in soooo much natural light. The other wall also needed a little TLC. Remnants of wallpaper hung off the wall in large chunks, with plaster broken off, revealing the old-style lath wooden boards in others. The ceilings were so high that Jason’s obnoxious height didn’t look out of place at all. Before going out of business ages ago, this place had been a bakery. The floor plan was already perfect, with a shattered, dented and falling apart display case marking where the front would be. Marinette could already see the chalkboards displaying her menu, and shiny new display cases full of pink macaroons, tarts and whatever else she wants because it would be hers. There was plenty of space in the main area for her to install seating, and cute little coffee tables, ooh and maybe a bookshelf. Marinette was willing to bet that all she had to do was install it, and Jason’s army of books would magically appear. Then people could come and read books, and Jason would never leave and she would be able to feed him all the potions to heal his aura.

Marinette started to walk toward the doorway leading deeper into where her future kitchen would be when an obnoxious hand caught her hoodie and dragged her backward. She barely got out a noise of complaint before Jason was speaking.

“Oh no, you don’t. This place gots axe-murder vibes all over it. Oh for shits sake, I’m going first. No- don’t gimme that look. You’re staying behind me and you’re just gonna have to suck it up buttercup.” Jason muttered, shutting down her protests as he manhandled her behind him like the brute he was and walked into the kitchen.

“Jerk.” She grumbled as she followed him.

“I heard that.”

“You were supposed to- hey! I thought we said no guns!” Marinette yelped as she saw him put a hand on the weapon hidden by his jacket. Marinette didn’t even know guns were this big of a thing in the US until he pulled it out when they were checking out an earlier location and found a couple of mean-looking men living inside. While Marinette didn’t disagree that they gave her a creepy look, she definitely did NOT feel like it warranted Jason threatening them with a gun.

“No, you said no guns and I laughed in your face,” Jason replied, not looking back at her.

“Jason! Someone could get hurt.” Marinette hissed at him and took in the kitchen. Damn. It so perfect, she would have plenty of workspace, fridge space, and oven space.

“That's the point.” Jason agreed while crossing the room and checking all the dark corners, nooks and crannies. Marinette glared. He was ruining the magic. This place is magical and perfect and Jason was ruining it with his stupid guns and his stupid face. While he was distracted she turned to go up the stairs and check out the apartment above. Jason however, seemed to sense her imminent poor life choices and materialized in front of her.

“Jassssson. You’re ruining the magic. This place is beautiful and I’m claiming it as my own. Let me explore its majestic beauty.” Marinette started to full-on whine.

“Don’t give me that bullshit. Stay here. Who knows what could be up there.” He glared down at her with his stupid height.

“Jason.” She whined

“No. Stay here.” He demanded. She started to cross her arms petulantly but stopped herself. She was an adult damnit.

“But-”

“No.”

“I could-”

“No.”

“Would you-”

“No.”

“Let me-”

“No.”

“Finishspeakingdamnit.” Marinette hissed out the last bit as fast as possible. Jason smirked.

“No.”

“Oh screw you!” Marinette growled.

“Stay here Marinette, I’m just going to make sure there are no surprises upstairs.” Jason physically pushed her back a step and moved up the stairs.

“Remind me why I’m friends with you? I can’t seem to remember.” Marinette called up after him.

“I already told you. Were not friends you’re just bumming on my couch.” Jason called back down and vanished into the upstairs. Marinette listened for a moment, to make sure he wasn’t still up at the top of the stairs, and then followed him up.

When she got to the top of the stairs, she bit back a squeal, this place was perfect. There was a doorway where she could put in a door to separate her workspace from her home. And just past it was a nice little living room with and an outdated little kitchenette that would be perfect. With all the windows boarded up, and no working electricity, it was a little hard to see, but Marinette didn’t mind. The potential was so obvious. She heard Jason moving quietly off to her right, so she moved left. Over to where one of the three bedrooms were.

She slipped inside and froze. An older man was sleeping on a most likely bug-infested mattress in the corner. He snapped awake the moment she entered, sensing the presence of another person. He had an old, faded, spiderweb tattoo covering half his face and deep wrinkles that made him look even older than he probably was. A moment of concentration revealed a sickly pale yellow aura covered in an intense miasma of misfortune. Unlike Jason’s aura, the misfortune that this man experienced had seeped into his, corrupting it to the point where it was nearly grey. Marinette met the man’s eyes and gave him a sad smile. Slowly, making sure to project her movements, she reached into her bag and pulled out the half of her sandwich that she had leftover from her and Jason’s late lunch. It was wrapped in a wax paper, so she slowly set it down in front of her. Then she pulled out a twenty-dollar bill from her wallet and set that down too. The man looked at her in disbelief for a moment and opened his mouth to say something when fear overtook his features and he flinched back.

Not even a split second later, she was pulled back and Jason was between her and the man. Thankfully, he didn’t pull his gun out.

“Are you kidding me? You couldn’t wait one fucking minute?” Jason growled taking in the man and the sandwich and money on the ground, before sighing deeply.

“He wasn’t going to do anything.” Marinette protested.

“Well, he won’t now,” Jason argued back. Marinette ignored him and peered around him to get another look at the man. She smiled and waved at him.

“Hi, I’m Marinette! I-”

“Don’t tell him your name” Jason hissed.

“I’m Marinette, you can ignore him, it's what I do. I’m the new owner of this place. Or at least I will be pretty soon. I’ll be bringing in construction crews and stuff so this place might not be safe for you for a little bit while I’m having it fixed up. I’ll be opening a coffee shop here so as an apology for kicking you out, feel free to stop by for tea or coffee! On the house!” She beamed at him. Jason sighed deeply. The man looked between them warily, before nodding slowly.

“Great! I’ll leave you to yourself. I’m sure you weren’t looking for company. Sorry to disturb you. Have a great day.” Marinette smiled at him one more time before grabbing Jason’s wrist and dragging him back out of the room.

“I’ve seen enough, this place is perfect and I’m buying it. Did you want to go look at some more hotels for you to shoot down? Or do you want to go grocery shopping for dinner? I’ll buy since I’m staying free of charge.” Marinette tried to fill the silence as they made their way out. When they stepped out into the afternoon light, Marinette looked up to see a really soft expression on Jason’s face that she hadn’t seen before.

“What’s with the look?” He blinked down at her, and the look vanished.

“Nothing, we can go get groceries. There’s a great little mom and pop grocers down on fifth, I’ll show it to you, and you can call your real estate person and buy the axe-murderer dump. Hell if I know what you see in it.” Jason muttered the last part as they approached his motorcycle.

“Excuse you! It is not a dump! It’s beautiful and you’ll see. Just wait until it’s fixed up. Then you’ll be begging me to serve you coffee, but I won’t. Just watch me. You’ll get no coffee from this glorious treasure until you apologize.” Marinette replied with a slight huff, wacking away Jason’s hands when he tried to put a helmet on her.

“I can do it myself.” She grumbled and snatched it away, putting it on herself.

“Fine but let me check the strap, you left it way too loose last time.”

“I am a fully capable adult and I do not need your help.”

“Then learn proper helmet safety.”

“Oh my god, Jason.”

“Oh my god, Marinette.”

“Don’t you start this with m- Gah!”

“Problem?”

“Are you trying to strangle me?”

“No just making sure the helmet’s tight enough, that shits useless unless worn properly. In fact, did you know helmets worn improperly can sometimes do more harm than good? Statistics say-”

“I don’t need your fake statistics.”

“Then wear the helmet properly.”

“You are ridiculous.”

“It’s called being a responsible adult. Some day, when you grow up, you’ll learn how to be one too.”

“I hate you. Why are we friends?”

“I told you, we're not friends, you just bum off my couch.”

“Uhhuh. Keep telling yourself that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it occurs to me that I've been posting extremely frequently but the muse is strong with this and I'm writing while it's there. Idk how far I'll get before the muse abandons me, and when that happens updates will slow down a bit. However, until that happens, enjoy another chapter! 
> 
> P.S Your comments are my life blood right now so thanks for all your kind words!


	5. A New Family?

“Two months Jason!” Marinette moaned, from where she was sprawled out on his couch.

“I heard the first twenty seven times you complained.” Jason grumbled from where he was sitting also on the couch with her feet in his lap. 

“Two months until I can move in! Two months! Why did you let me pick a place that would take soo looooong? Jassoooon?” Marinette moaned again.

“Wow, it’s almost like I told you it was an axe-murderer dump.” Jason replied dryly, flipping through the channels on his TV.

“You’re my only friend in this cruel heartless place. It’s your duty to help me make good choices. How could you let me do this? What am I supposed to do for two months?! That’s eight weeks of my life! sixty days that I’ll never get back! sixty days that I could be baking macaroons, changing lives! But noooooo. Construction takes time.” Marinette groaned. 

“Well it’ll be fifty-nine days after today. So there’s that.” Jason shrugged, stopping on a news channel and scoffing at the headlines. He continued flipping through the channels.

“Jaaaaaason, you’re not helping. What am I supposed to do? Bum off your couch for two months? That’s not going to work, I was supposed to find a place and move in right away, not be homeless for two months!” Not only that, how was she supposed to go about brewing her potions, and investigating Gotham’s night life with Jason constantly looking over her shoulder. He was an absolute joy to be around 51% percent of the time, but she was still going to need her space. Jason shrugged.

“I mean you can stay here, I own real estate all over the city, and I don’t actually use this place very often so if you give me a couple hours to clear my private shit out of the bedroom, you can have the run of the place. I’m gonna need to leave town soon for a little while anyway. So it shouldn’t be a problem.” Marinette stilled, and slowly looked him over.

“What?” Marinette stared at him. 

“I mean it’s just gonna sit empty while I’m gone anyway.” Jason said a little defensively.

“No, you can’t just offer to let me have you’re apartment for two months! That’s not how it works!” Marinette exclaimed.

“Why the fuck not?” Jason still had her feet in his lap, preventing her from getting up and pacing angrily. Curse him.

“Because what if something happens, what if … I don’t know, I accidentally break something? You’ve known me for like three days! You can’t just give me you’re home for two months just cause you’re not using it!” Marinette gesticulated wildly.

“It’s not my home, it’s an apartment I barely use. I can do whatever the fuck I want with it.” Jason replied testily.

“Damnit Jason! Fine! But I’m paying rent and utilities and whatever else you pay while you’re gone. And give me back my feet you dirty cheater!” Marinette growled and tried to yank her feet out of his grip so she could get up and pace out her feelings.

“You shouldn’ta given them to me if you didn’t want me usin them against you. And you don’t need to pay shit. I’d be payin the same flat rate whether you stayed here or not so there’s no point in you payin me back for it.” Jason kept her feet trapped as he made a show of relaxing and putting his feet up on the coffee table, he settled the TV channel on a gorey old-style horror movie.

“Why are you such a nice ass?” Marinette groaned and flopped back down.

“I don’t know, why are you such an angry bundle of sunshine?” Jason retorted

“Because you aggravate me. Give me back my feet.” Marinette grumbled.

“Maybe after the movie.” Jason replied.

“Ugh why are we friends?”

“Pretty sure we’ve been over this, you just bum on my couch.”

“Ha you didn’t deny it this time!”

~

Two days later Marinette found herself alone in Jason’s apartment. True to his word, Jason had moved two boxes of mysterious good that he wouldn’t let her see out of his bedroom, and handed over the keys. Despite Jason’s best efforts, Marinette gave him enough money to cover two months worth of rent and got a lecture about giving people money without signing some sort of contract first. 

Jason had taken her to an electronics store where she purchased a laptop. And set her up with a list of emergency contacts while he was away. After reminding her to take a taxi or bus during the day and not go outside at night for any reason, Jason left on a one month business trip. Jason made it sound like some sort sketchy hitman business, but Marinette honestly wasn’t sure whether he did that to screw with her, to keep his actual job a secret, or because it was actually sketchy hitman business. Marinette was guessing some sort of combination of all three to be honest. 

As much as she loved having a friend around, it was time to get to work. She used her newfangled laptop to order a ton of random ingredients, a mortar and pestle, half a chemistry lab’s worth of supplies, and a veritable hoard of cooking utensils. After cross checking her grimoire to make sure that she had everything she would need set for two day delivery, Marinette proceeded to go outside at night. Hah. Jason couldn’t tell her what to do. 

It hadn’t taken as much time as she expected to come up with a new costume design. She googled Gotham’s heroes and took inspiration from their costumes. Her goal was to not be connected to Paris, and hopefully look at home in Gotham. She started with the fox miraculous. Her transformation left her in a much darker costume. Her chest and torso were black, with black gloves and boots. From her elbows to her shoulders, and her knees to her chest, pops of orange stood out in stark contrast. She had a bright orange utility belt, and a bright orange domino mask. She had a black-on-the-outside, orange-on-the-inside hood that covered concealed her hair. On top of the hood was a set of black and orange fox ears. Her black hair had turned a fiery orange, and her eyes took on an orange tint as well. A black tail, with and an orange tip hung from the back of her belt, just below her flute. The last edition to her look made her scowl a little bit. A cloak was fixed to her shoulders and fell to just above her ankles. It was a matte black with an orange line running around the edge of the entire piece. Marinette wasn’t exactly ecstatic about the extra fabric, but she wanted to blend in with the local heroes and nearly everyone else seemed to have one. That, and she was pretty sure that it was actually beneficial to stealth. The miraculous would never give her gear that would betray her, so she was fairly certain that the cloak wouldn’t catch on anything or even make noise when she moved. The magic would protect her. 

Did a little twirl in front of the mirror in the bathroom.

“ What do you think Tikki? ” Marinette asked the kwami as her companion flew in excited circles around her.

“ You look great Marinette! This looks really stealthy which is exactly what you were going for! ” Tikki flew to a stop in front of her.

“ Ready? ” Marinette asked,

“ Absolutely! ” The kwami practically quivered with excitement, from what Tikki had explained, she almost never was able to merge with other miraculous because it was usually too much of strain. She and Plagg were the most powerful so they were the rarely merged with anyone. 

“ Transform me! Merge! ” Marinette called out and closed her eyes when she felt the rush of ladybug’s power sweep through her. After a moment, Marinette looked in the mirror and observed the change. Every inch of her outfit that had been orange had changed to a dark red.  _ Perfect _ . There were no spots, and the shade was much darker than Ladybug had ever been. Her hair had changed from a flat orange to mix of red and orange that looked like actual fire. Her eyes were red at the center and gradually faded to orange near the edges of her iris. The whites of her eyes had become entirely black. As a final touch, an entirely black yo-yo was nestled discreetly in her utility belt. It was everything she had hoped for and more. She did an experimental backflip and grinned.  _ Marinette was back in business _ . 

She pulled out the flute and played a short tune, smiling as an illusion wrapped around her, bending the light and leaving her functionally invisible. Marinette slipped out her window, locked it behind her and dashed out into the night. 

Marinette stuck to the shadows at first, getting back into the groove of roof jumping, swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper, and just enjoying the feeling of flying. It wasn’t long before a scream broke through the night. Marinette broke into a run, rushing toward the sound. Justs as she made it to the alley, a blur of red flew past her in an arc that collided with the first thug below in a feat of impossible accuracy. Marinette couldn’t even see into the alley below until she was right above, there was no way for that guy to adjust his angle mid-air to collide with that guy. Marinette broke the laws of physics on a regular basis she knew how they were supposed to work. Shaking off her disbelief, she observed the sight below. Three men with face masks were taking on one costumed hero who she was pretty sure was Red Robin. Off to the side two scantily clad women cowered together. This was was not a thing. It was too cliche to be a thing. Why was this a thing. The two women ran only after Red Robin told them to run. What the heck were they incapable of coming to that conclusion on their own? 

She focused back on the fight. Red Robin had already taken down two of the grunts and was finishing of the third with a fighting style much different from her own. Hers was dodging with acrobatics and tying them up with a yo-yo. Red Robin’s was . . . efficient. He seemed to know what the guy was going to do before he did it and was already reacting as the guy started to throw his punch. She settled in and watched. Studying his movements. All too soon, the fight was over and he was grappling away. Without thinking she grabbed her yo-yo and followed, keeping a distance despite the allusion. She concentrated on him and blinked back shock. He had a beautiful green aura of focus, patience, intelligence, and diligent self control. It was dulled with what Marinette recognized as extreme sleep deprivation. The miasma clinging to his aura was nearly as strong as Jason’s and hadn’t corrupted his aura at all. When she got closer, she nearly shrieked in pure unadulterated outrage. Where was this shit coming from? It was harder to notice because of his aura’s color, but there it freaking was. The damn. Vile. Magic. 

Unlike with Jason, it wasn’t tangled around him, tearing through is aura and corrupting him. Instead, tiny remnants of it were clinging to his aura like a god damned parasite. Had this hero come in contact with Jason? Was it contagious? No. Marinette decided after a moment, she would have noticed if the magic on Jason was flaking off onto the people around him. For this to happen, Red Robin would have had to be exposed to someone absolutely drenched in the magic, possibly even to the source of it. When she figured out where this shit was coming from (and she definitely would) something was getting blown up. Marinette was willing to bet cash money that Jason was some sort of sketchy hitman person and could definitely get her explosives if she asked nicely. Wait. Scratch that. Jason wouldn't let her anywhere near explosives. He’d probably give her some dumb excuse like explosives were for grown ups who wouldn’t trip while carrying them. Whatever. She’d get her own explosives, get rid of the source of that nastiness, and purify Jason, Red Robin, and anyone else affected by the nastiness. 

Not quite sure why, she kept following Red Robin on his route through the city. Marinette got more chances to study his fighting style when he intercepted two more muggings, a bank robbery, three assorted brawls. Near the end of their trip across Gotham, she noticed that he slowed a bit, then sped up considerably. Marinette had to race to keep pace behind him. Launching herself at full speed over buildings, across town and grappling around skyscrapers. The chase ended when he darted around a corner into an alleyway. Still running full speed, she raced around after him. That was a bad idea, he was standing casually just behind the corner, and only her battle hardened ladybug reflexes prevented her from slamming into him. As it was, she managed a hard twist and just barely avoided coming into any physical contact with him. Marinette did however, land in a heap on the ground. A moment later, Red Robin turned with a frown. He was eyeing the general vicinity of where she landed. How the heck?

“Does Ra’s have invisible ninjas stalking me now?” Red Robin asked, sounding both exasperated and annoyed. Marinette opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find an answer. Nothing came out.

“Not going to speak? That’s fine. Consider this your only warning.” Red Robin bared his teeth in a mockery of a smile and then threw down a smoke pellet. Marinette gaped as the alley filled with smoke. By the time it vanished, Red Robin was gone, and Marinette was still gaping. Marinette let herself fall back on the grimey ground, staring up at the smoggy night. What even is her life?

~

A loud pounding cut through Marinette’s blissful sleep. She groaned and buried her head under the pillows. Maybe if she ignored it, it would go away. The pounding continued.

“ Marinette I think someone is knocking on your door ” Tikki whispered in her ear.

“ Go ‘way ” Marinette nestled further into her blankets. The pounding continued. Marinette peeked open one eye and glanced at her phone: 10:30 am. What hell is this? 

“ Not worth it ” Marinette grumbled and closed her eyes again. The pounding stopped finally stopped after another solid minute.

“ Finally ” Marinette whispered and let sleep take her. Or at least she would have, if she didn’t hear the front door creak open. She snapped to full awakeness. And looked around the bedroom, the miraculous box and grimoire were hidden under her bed, there was a gun she found taped to the underside of the bedframe too. She was certainly  _ not _ using that. There was a desk in the corner with a large illustrated hardcopy print of Edgar Allen Poe’s works sitting on it. Jason was never going to forgive her. In an instant she was up, and had the book in her hand. The door to the bedroom was closed, it opened inward and the hinges were on the right. Book in hand, she positioned herself on the left side so she wouldn’t get boxed in by the door. Heart racing, she waited as the footsteps, two sets of them (this is bad) got closer. 

“We’re going to get shot.” Marinette heard a whispered female voice say.

“We’re not going to get shot. It’s fine. Why are we whispering?” A male voice whispered back.

“Because he’s going to shoot us.” The female voice whispered angrily. The voices were much closer to the door. A light knock sounded on the bedroom door.

“Jaybird? It’s me and Steph. Don’t shoot.” The male voice called a moment before opening the bedroom door. Marinette froze in indecision for a second as the door opened. Jason would tell her to swing first and ask questions later, but he seemed to know Jason, and Marinette didn’t want to take a swing at one of Jason’s friends. A tall dark haired man stepped into the room and flinched back when his eyes locked onto Marinette poised to strike with a book. 

“Shit. shit. SHIT I’m sorry I thought this was my brother’s place I swear I didn’t know. Sorry sorry sorry. Steph we need to LEAVE. WE’RE BREAKING AND ENTERING.” The man’s blue eyes had widened in panic as he stumbled back out of the room hands coming up in a mean-no-harm gesture. His voice rose a pitch in panic and he was backtracking toward the door, hands waving wildly. A blonde teenager in a purple hoodie was looking back and forth between him and the entrance to the bedroom in alarm. When her eyes locked on Marinette, she swore loudly and backtracked too.

“Oh SHIT. sorry. We didn’t mean to break in I swear.” They were both speaking too rapidly for her to catch everything they said, but she got the overall gist. 

“Wait. Are you friends with Jason?” Marinette found herself asking. They both froze in the middle of their panicked backtracking. 

“Um… No? Are you friends with Jason? I didn’t think Jason had friends.” The blonde replied slowly. Only to be elbowed by the man who had a cautious/desperate smile on his face. 

“He’s our brother. Is he around?” 

“Um no, he’s renting this place to me. He’s out of town right now though.” Marinette replied slowly. For some reason, they both stared at her uncomprehending. 

“He’s. . . renting to you?” The blonde-Steph maybe?- asked, confused.

“Yeah I needed a place to stay for two months while mine is being renovated. So Jason offered?” The baffled looks on their faces turned her statement into a question.

“Wait, so you’re actually friends with him?” The man looked so excited at the idea.

“Um yeah?” Marinette replied hesitantly, the man absolutely beamed at her.

“That’s great! I’m Dick by the way. This is Steph. Jason probably hasn’t mentioned us, but we’re adopted siblings. What’s your name? How long have you known each other? How did you meet?” The man-Dick- started asking questions rapid fire. 

“Um. Hi? My name’s Marinette. We met a couple of days ago at the library. He’s been showing me around Gotham and letting me couch surf up until he had to leave town.” When Marinette explained, both of them looked extremely confused. 

“He’s renting his apartment to you? After knowing you a couple of days?” Dick asked slowly, his face was starting to get a little suspicious. Steph however, was squinting at her, as if Marinette had the answer to one of life’s great mysteries, and was withholding it. 

“Um yeah? I mean he was pretty insistent that the hotel I was going to stay at wasn’t safe. So he kind of dragged me back here? I don’t know? But it turned out really great sooo.” Marinette shrugged awkwardly. Steph gasped, a look of horrified delight and realization on her face. Dick still looked baffled.

“So he just-” Dick started to question when Steph interrupted him.

“Holy shit. It’s a learned behavior. It’s a freaking learned behavior.” Steph whispered, looking at Marinette with a level of reverence that kind of made her uncomfortable. 

“Steph?” Dick asked, sounding as confused as Marinette felt.

“Do you have a tragic backstory? Absence of a trusted guardian figure in your life?” Steph asked with an alarming look in her eye.

“Um I guess you could say that? I don’t really want to talk about it.” Marinette replied awkwardly at the same time Dick made an offended noise and hissed,

“Steph you can’t just ask someone that.” Steph however, was now sporting a manic grin and pulling out her phone.

“Oh my god I need to text Babs and warn her. It’s a freaking learned behavior. Holy Shit.” Steph gushed.

“Steph what are you talking about?” Dick asked, sounding as alarmed as Marinette felt. Steph looked up at Dick and stared incredulously.

“You don’t see it? Seriously?” Dick frowned and shook his head.

“Why do you think I asked?” Dick replied slowly.

“Look at her.” Steph said, waving her hand up and down at Marinette’s person. 

“Okay?” Dick replied quizzically, still not seeing whatever it was that Steph saw. She scoffed.

“Of course you don’t you’re one of them. Look at this. This is your future.” Steph said once again motioning toward Marinette.

“Will you please just explain?” Dick said with an exasperated tone, clearly more used to this than Marinette. 

“Smol, black haired, blue eyed child, with a tragic backstory, no home, and no visible parental figures?” Steph spelled out slowly, Marinette wasn’t sure what just happened, but Dick gasped in legitimate horror. He turned back to Marinette, still looking horrified.

“Did Jason kidnap you? Please tell me he didn’t kidnap you.” Dick looked like he was ready to cry or possibly hug her. 

“Um no? What’s going on?” Marinette asked slowly. Steph shook her head tragically.

“It’s already too late, Stockholm’s set in, pretty soon she’ll be following him around in tights and punching people for his approval. This is your future Dick. It’s a learned behavior.” Steph spoke morosely. Marinette looked to Dick for an explanation, but Dick was still staring at her in horror shaking his head emphatically. 

“No. I’m not like that.” Dick whispered softly.

“Are you trying to convince me? Or yourself? Cause thirty seconds ago I was willing to bet cash money that Jason wasn’t like that either, but here we are.” Steph said, grinning maniacally at Dick’s horror. 

“Umm, what’s going on?” Marinette asked again. 

“Don’t worry about it, Jason’s just once again proving that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Only Jason’s tree is less sexist which doesn’t surprise me at all because he’d punch sexism in the face if he could.” Steph said with a huge grin that somehow got even wider when Dick made an actual pained noise. 

“Okay?” Marinette asked slowly. 

“Hey do you wanna get Waffles with us? I want to meet the newest member of the family. Hey Dick, does this make her your niece? Cousin? Little sister? What are you going to call her? Think carefully on this, whatever label we put on this now will define all second generation aggressive adoptions in the future.” Steph hadn’t lost her grin. Dick buried his head in his hands.

“Steph. No. Why are you like this?” Dick whined sadly. 

“Ummm. I guess I could go for waffles?” Marinette started not really sure what was happening.

“Great! By the way have you and Jason decided on your last name yet?” Steph asked with a grin, Dick made another dying noise.

“What?” 

“Are you gonna be Wayne? A Todd? Or a Todd-Wayne?” Steph asked with a grin.

“What?” Marinette asked again. 

“Or is it still too soon?” Steph asked with a stage whisper. Dick continued to make dramatic dying sounds.

“Ummm, I think you’re confused. Jason’s just a friend.” Marinette said slowly.

“Mmmhmm, too soon methinks.” Steph said with a nod.

“I think you’re mistaken-” Marinette started to protest.

“Waffles! This is a great day, lets go. Do you need anything before we leave? Dick’s buying.” Steph asked excitedly. Marinette glanced down at her pajamas she bought yesterday. 

“Uh can I have a minute to get dressed?” Marinette still wasn’t sure what was happening.

“Yup, we’ll be waiting out here!” Steph said with a smile, Dick continued to make dying noises, as Marinette hesitantly backed out of the room. Steph followed her gaze.

“Oh, don’t worry about him, he’s just being a drama queen, it’s hard for some people when they’re faced with their future.” Steph waved her away. 

“Steph why are you like this.” Marinette heard Dick moan as she closed the door.

“I was born this way.” Came the muffled response. Tikki peeked up from where she was hiding in the pillows. 

“ Marinette, what just happened? ” Tikki asked.

  
“ I honestly have no idea Tikki. ” Marinette muttered and went to change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. So that happened. I have no idea where that even came from. Red Robin and Red Fox were gearing up to meet and suddenly Stephanie freakin Brown was in my head screaming "It's a learned behavior!" and cackling maniacally and wouldn't stop until I wrote it down. Next thing you know, Dick was all like "Oh my god Karen you can't just ask people why they're white" and that was that. The ship will have to wait for now. Marinette was too busy questioning her life choices to look at their auras, but that will come soon enough. Sorry if this started edging toward crack at the end, but I regret nothing and everything simultaneously. So that's just how its gonna be. This story will get back on track someday.
> 
> Also, I know Jason normally wouldn't just let people into his safe house, and leave them there unsupervised, but I'm thinking that he had business that couldn't wait.
> 
> Happy Tuesday Everyone!


	6. An Old Memory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not good at tagging, but I'm going to add graphic descriptions of violence because Gotham villains are going to start appearing and they tend to be graphically violent. 
> 
> Guns are going to be used in this chapter and references to and non-graphic descriptions of under age superheros getting shot will be made. If this bothers you, let me know and I'll start adding summaries at the bottom so you can skip any sections that make you uncomfortable and read a recap at the end. 
> 
> Otherwise: All aboard the angst train, we're going on a wild ride. (dun dun duuuuuuuun)

Marinette was half-way through her third waffle when her phone rung. She yanked out her phone as Jagged Stone’s latest hit blared through the relatively quiet diner. Her caller ID read: ‘Annoying Tall Guy is calling’ Marinette snorted, that was the literal best choice.

“Hello?”

“Marinette are you okay?” Jason’s alarmed voice came through the speaker.

“Yes? Why wouldn’t I be.” She asked carefully.

“Stephanie fucking Brown.” Was his hissed response.

“Oh. Um yeah, everything’s fine, her and Dick bought me waffles.” The moment Marinette said Dick’s name, Jason swore. Violently.

“I’ll call you back.” And then he hung up. Marinette stared at her phone, confused. A moment later, Dick’s phone started ringing. Dick stared at it for a moment like it might bite him, then slowly took a bite of his waffle.

“Um.” Marinette started.

“Yes?” Dick asked casually as he made eye contact with her and then continued eating his waffle.

“I think your phone’s ringing.” Marinette felt the need to point out.

“It appears so. Why do you ask?” Dick asked faux casually, continuing to eat his waffle.

“Are you going to answer it?” Marinette felt obligated to ask.

“Well I would, but as you can see, my hands are full, and my family has a no-phones-at-the-dinner-table-policy.” Dick explained with a ‘what-can-you-do?’ shrug. Marinette pointedly glanced over to where Steph was typing on her phone and cackling softly to herself. Dick’s phone stopped ringing. A moment later, Steph’s phone started ringing and she yelped and dropped it like it had burned her. She stared at her phone for a moment and went back to eating her waffle.

“Um.” Marinette started to say.

“Well my hands are full and our family has a no-phones-at-the-dinner-table policy.” Steph shrugged with an identical ‘what-can-you-do?’ gesture. Moments after Steph’s phone stopped ringing, Marinette’s phone started again. ‘Annoying Tall Guy is calling’ She picked up her phone, but Steph reached across the table and put a hand over hers.

“Marinette. No phones at the dinner table.” Steph said with an entirely serious face.

“Um.” Marinette stared down at her still ringing phone.

“Just eat your waffle.” Steph insisted.

Very slowly, Marinette set her phone back down on the table. When it finally stopped ringing. Dick’s phone dinged. Dick glanced at it, winced, then flipped it over. His phone dinged again. Then again. Then a third time, before Dick hit a button on the side of his phone, and it went silent. A moment later it vibrated loudly against the table. Dick picked up the phone and stuck it in his pocket. Marinette took another bite of her waffle and choked when her phone dinged loudly. She glanced down.

‘MARINETTE’ her phone dinged again

‘ANSWER YOUR FUCKING PHONE’

‘Whatever they’re telling you, don’t listen.’

‘You need to leave immediately’

‘If Dick tries to follow you, punch him in the dick.’

‘Remember the rules.’

‘And don’t talk to Brown, everything that comes out of her mouth is a fuckin LIE’ another message popped up, but Steph reached across the table and flipped her phone over before she could read it.

“No phones at the dinner table Marinette.” Steph said seriously with Dick nodding sagely.

“Um.” Marinette stared for a moment, before shrugging and going back to her waffle. It was a really good waffle.

Dick grinned and opened his mouth to something, but froze. Staring behind at something behind. Marinette glanced back to see a TV mounted in the corner. The headlines read: Joker holds Wayne Enterprises Leaders Hostage. The video was of the Joker holding a gun to some poor man’s head. Even though it was silent, the subtitles below read that Joker had Bruce Wayne and Timothy Drake-Wayne hostage at a bank and was threatening to shoot them if Batman did not appear within ten minutes. A timer in the top right corner of the screen declared that they had 9 minutes and 03 seconds remaining.

“Sorry Marinette, we have to go.” Dick blurted out as he got to his feet, throwing down a hundred dollar bill on the table.

“Order whatever and have them keep the change. Bye.” He said as he was halfway out the door.

“It was nice to meet you!” Steph shouted as she followed him out. Marinette stared for a moment and pulled out her phone, she google-mapped the location and was surprised to find that it was just around the corner. Mind made up, she rushed out. It only took a moment to find an empty alley and she was changed in a flash. She raced out and crossed the distance between her and the bank in less than two minutes. The bank was surrounded by news helicopters and police. A crowd of people had formed outside and it was broad daylight. Shit. Marinette was trying to be low profile. She pulled out her yo-yo and brought up the newsfeed 7:08 remaining. She created a silent timer on her yo-yo and synced it to the feed. From what she read, Batman usually didn’t come out during the day, but he always made an exception for Joker. He’d be here. The question, however, was: would he be here fast enough? From her angle, she was facing the side of the building. While police officers were guarding the back, it was much less populated than the front. She could use an illusion to get in, but she really didn’t want to waste it in case she needed it later.

Mind made up, she circled around to the back, and with a carefully timed leap and roll, she slipped onto the roof without any of the cops noticing. From there, she slipped inside by breaking a window. She winced, but all the alarms were already going off anyway so no one would notice. Probably.

She quietly slipped through the empty offices upstairs and down a flight of stairs and into an air duct. Marinette was sure she set off at least another three alarms as she went but hopefully no one would notice. She checked her timer, 5:28 remaining. Slipping through the ducts, she found a vantage point. She was in a vent near the floor and could see most of the atrium where Joker and the hostages were. Men in clown masks stood all around the room holding guns and keeping guard around the edges. Most of the hostages were cowering in a corner kneeling with their hands on their heads. Joker was in the center of the room with his arm swung over Bruce Wayne’s shoulders like they were old friends. The Joker was saying something that Marinette couldn’t hear, but from the way Mr. Wayne was cowering and looked about ready to wet himself, it probably wasn’t anything good. Timothy Drake Wayne sat a couple of yards away in a chair with Harley Quinn sitting in his lap. He looked extremely uncomfortable like he was trying really hard to keep his face neutral. To be fair, Marinette wouldn’t want to offend her by grimacing either.

She glanced down at her timer 4:29 remaining. Batman would come. She wouldn’t need to reveal herself. Her first crime-fighting in Gotham was NOT going to be against Joker and Harley Quinn in a room full of armed gunmen and hostages. Batman was going to show up. Just to be safe, she carefully maneuvered her flute off her belt, and got it in front of her. She would be ready. 4:14 remaining. She focused on Joker and nearly threw up in her mouth. What had once been a fairly creepy yellow to start with had absorbed so much corruption that it was nearly black. Over that was a bright sickly green infestation that, to Marinette’s surprise, had nothing to do with the nasty green magic. The green infestation had seeped so deeply into the aura that the whole thing had a yellowish-grey-greenish color that was actually oozing misfortune. Never before had Marinette seen an aura actually produce misfortune. Not even Hawkmoth’s had done that. It was oozing off him in a disgusting grey-green sludge. After a moment of staring, Marinette checked her timer: 2:58 remaining. At the 2:15 mark, the skylight of the atrium shattered and Batgirl dropped down from above. Oh, thank fuck.

“Ah ah ah!” Joker called out in a singsong voice and pressed a gun to Bruce Wayne’s head.

“Let him go, Joker!” Batgirl demanded.

“Nope, another step and he DIES” Joker cackled.

“I asked for Batsy you see? And I’ll be pretty upset if all I get is little ole Batgirl.” Joker had a manic grin on his face.

“Well this little ole Batgirl is more than enough to kick your a-” Joker’s gun went off at that moment, causing Marinette’s heart to stop and probably’s Batgirl’s too judging by the look on her face. A moment later, when Bruce didn’t collapse to the ground, Marinette realized he hadn’t been shot.

“I’ll talk to Batsy, or Brucie here Bites it, missy.” Joker cackled. Welp Batman wasn’t getting here quick enough. Marinette blew as softly and quietly into her flute as possible.   
Instantly the atrium exploded into smoke. Marinette watched the ‘ghost’ of the illusion as it took shape and slipped out of the vent. As the caster of the illusion, she could see what she created as a transparent outline overshadowing reality. Everyone else just saw darkness. She rushed out of her hiding place at the same time Batgirl darted forward. When Batgirl collided with Joker and Bruce, Bruce simultaneously ducked down as Batgirl punched Joker in the face. Joker took a couple blind shots at Batgirl, and a line of blood appeared on her cheek. Marinette couldn’t let that distract her though, because she was within range. She brought up her flute and swung down at the back of Joker’s unprotected head. With years of practice, the Joker dodged at the last second, taking a much less punishing blow to the shoulder. Batgirl was already back in his space, and a kick to his wrist that sent the gun skittering away.

Marinette was already running out of time, she wanted the illusion to be as real as possible so the smoke was already clearing. The second part of her illusion was already taking shape. Bruce Wayne had already fled clear of Joker and was nowhere to be seen. Harley Quinn was off Timothy Wayne but dragging the unwilling man over to where the Joker was fighting her and Batgirl. Her illusion of Batman had fully formed and was hurling batarangs at the guards and Joker. Several had dived away from their positions to avoid getting hit and the illusion had drawn all of their fire. In the split second that she had taken the situation into full account, Marinette had already disengaged the Joker and flung her yo-yo full speed at Harley. To the rest of the room, they saw Red Robin disengage Joker and throw a batarang at Harley. The illusions were holding. As soon as everyone got the vaguest glimpse of the battlefield, illusion Batman had thrown another smoke grenade. In the next moment, everything was once again dark. Harley dodged the yo-yo but it gave her the second she needed to close and slam her flute into Harley’s side. As she stumbled back, Marinette grabbed Drake and flung herself away from Harley.

Keeping an eye on where the gunmen were firing, she tossed Drake over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry and raced toward the other hostages.

“What the hell?” Drake shouted at her while struggling to get free from her grip.

“I’m Red Robin, and I’m here to save you.” she shouted back, the illusion of Red Robin’s voice overlaying her own.

“Are you kidding me?” He hissed in outrage, but she had already dropped him by the other hostages and slammed her flute into the nearest gunmen. Three bullets slammed into her stomach in the time it took her to sweep his legs out from under him and slam her fist into his face. Years of practice had her suppressing the terror that surged through her and she forced herself to not remember the past right now. These bullets had no magic, and while they could hurt like a bitch, they couldn’t pierce her suit. She wasn’t dying, it was just the sting of impact. If she stopped to freak out right now, even for a moment, people would die. She could freak out later. Her attention was already split between the illusion Batman helping Batgirl distract Joker and Harley Quinn, and taking out the guards around the hostages. Springing up, she smashed into the second guard and mimed throwing a smoke grenade, letting the darkness envelop her and the hostages. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the real Batman drop down from the skylight and let her illusion Batman vanish into the smoke. Batman and Batgirl began working in immediate and beautiful synchronization, launching themselves into a long practiced battle against Joker and Harley Quinn. Another bullet connected with her arm and Marinette brought her focus back entirely to the present.

She launched herself over the next gunman, a spinning kick knock him, and the one coming up behind her down. She brought her flute down on the one closest to the hostages, knocking him out. She knocked out the fourth guard before he had a chance to get back up, and looked around. She counted eight originally, plus Harley Quinn and the Joker. Somewhere in the fighting, two more guards had been knocked out by either Batgirl or Batman, which left two unaccounted for. There, her stomach dropped as she found the seventh one pointing his gun toward the group of hostages that Drake was trying to quietly usher toward the exit. She hurled her yo-yo with barely a thought and dove toward the hostages who were much closer than the gunman. In a split second, she was between them and the shooter, bullets slammed into her chest and torso, as her yo-yo connected with the shooter. Screams erupted behind her. The gun went flying and Marinette hit the ground hard. Rolling to her feet, Marinette dive tackled the guard and knocked him out with more force than necessary. Breathing hard with adrenaline, she looked around trying to stop the eighth man. She couldn’t find him. Oh god. What if he was about to take a shot at the hostages. If she doesn’t find him, he’ll kill someone. Oh hell, where is he?

“Red Robin! Are you okay?” Drake’s voice cut through her slightly hysterical haze. She glanced back to see Timothy Drake looking at her in horror. Behind him, several more Gothamites were staring at her in stunned silence. A couple of them were bleeding, however, and that’s what Marinette’s nearly hysterical brain latched onto. Glancing back to the main fight, Marinette saw Joker and Harley Quinn being corralled further away from her and the hostages, the eighth guard was still nowhere to be seen, so she rushed over to the injured ones. A young woman in a teller uniform with a name tag that read “Christi” was bleeding sluggishly from her arm and staring at her in disbelief.

“Are you okay? Is anyone seriously injured?” She asked the group, someone choked back a noise.

“Am I okay? You just got shot! Like. A hundred times!” Christi the teller exclaimed, waving her non-injured arm with a slightly crazed look in her eye.

“No I didn’t I’m fine, he missed me.” Marinette assured the group.

“He missed you. At least twenty times. In the chest.” Drake said blankly.

“Yes. He did, now we need to go, you all need to get out of here.” Marinette insisted, before ushering the group toward the exit.

“Is Red Robin a meta?” She heard someone whisper confusedly. Marinette winced, so much for a low profile.

“No way. Remember a month ago when he was fighting Bane on the news? He totally bled on live television.” another murmured. As the group began slipping out of the building, Drake suddenly grabbed her arm.

“Who are you.” He hissed seriously.

“Um. Red Ro-” Marinette started to say

“Cut the bullshit. I’ve been rescued by Red Robin before. You’re not him.” Drake asked her with a determination in his eye that said she would not be getting out of this without an answer. She focused on him for a second, trying to figure out his game, and choked. So much for a low profile. Marinette had just rescued Red Robin’s civilian self. While pretending to be Red Robin. Shit. What is her life?

“I-I don’t know what y-you’re talking about civilian. I need to go now.” She yanked her arm free and turned back toward the fight. Joker was unconscious and tied up. Harley Quinn was gone. Batgirl must have left to chase after Harley Quinn because she was gone too. Batman turned back to look at her, and curiosity overcame better judgment. She focused on his aura and felt something die inside her._ Holy Shit. Dick Grayson was Batman._ He had the exact same shade of blue that Dick had, with the same confidence, flexibility, compassion, interspersed with hints sadness and joyousness that shouldn’t intermingle as easily as they seem to in Dick’s aura. Dick-Batman was scowling at her, and Marinette decided that it was definitely time to leave. She whipped her yo-yo up at the ceiling and flung herself toward the skylight. A Batarang connected with the cable and bounced off it. Did he just try to- How rude. Just for that Marinette gave Batman a cheeky wave as she vanished through the open skylight. She left the building at a full run.

Marinette bolted, she raced across three or four blocks worth of rooftops, before ducking down into an alleyway below. She barely made it a couple of steps before she felt the last vestiges of her illusion collapse. Marinette kept moving, still in costume, but no longer disguised as Red Robin. Seriously, what were the chances of rescuing Red Robin’s civilian identity the only time she disguised herself as him? She chose to disguise herself as Red Robin, because she was trying to keep a low profile, and he was the closest superhero in stature to herself that she had studied so far. Illusions were made stronger when there was a modicum of truth behind them. If she had tried to be Batman, people would have more easily noticed when her blows didn’t land where they should have because of the height and reach difference. She twisted and turned through the alleys, took a short pause to pull up a map of where she was on her yo-yo, then plotted a course to end near her (Jason’s) apartment. Several minutes later, Marinette detransformed and stepped out of the alley next to her apartment.

Glancing around nervously, no one seemed to take any notice her appearance, so Marinette headed back up to her (Jason’s) Apartment. It wasn’t until she stepped into her apartment and closed her door, that all her energy flooded out of her. With a deep sigh, she dragged herself into her kitchen and pulled out a bag of cookies, and gummy bears.

“Trixx? Tikki you guys can come out.” Marinette called tiredly. The two kwamis popped out of her hoodie and set upon their snacks.

“Are you okay Marinette?” Tikki asked with concern as she munched on her cookie.

“Is the strain of both of us too much for you?” Trixx asked nervously.

“No, it’s not that. I took some hits, and used Trixx’s illusion more than I ever have before.” Marinette muttered slowly. The memory of getting shot hit her again, and she shuddered, pushing away the feelings of pain and terror that came with it.

“Marinette, you do not need to push down your feelings anymore. Hawkmoth’s gone now. It is not healthy.” Tikki said with concern.

“I know Tikki, but I’ve dealt with things this way for a long time. It’s going to take a while before I can get the hang of dealing with these kinds of things.” Marinette replied carefully taking a cookie and munching on it.

“Marinette what happened to your arm?” Trixx gasped after a moment of silence. Tikki let out a gasp a second later, and Marinette looked down with a frown. Oh. A large darkening bruise was making itself known on her arm where she had been shot.

“I got shot” Marinette stared at her arm blankly, Tikki made a sad cooing noise.

“Are you okay, I know that brings up really bad memories for you.” Marinette nodded silently, studying the bruise. Without words, she got to her feet and rushed into the bathroom. Yanking off her top, she stared in the mirror, a familiar numbness began crawling under her skin and settling around her. Bruises were appearing all across her chest, torso, and she could feel a couple on her legs as well. Tikki and Trixx made noises behind her. Marinette poked a couple of them experimentally. The physical pain was barely even noticeable. She let her fingers trail down her ribs, absently running her fingers over the couple long thin scars and settled on the pale indent in her side where the bullet had struck her nearly a year ago.

“Gotham is so different from Paris.” Marinette commented quietly.

“I need to learn how to not get shot.” Marinette breathed out

“Everything is so different. It used to be all of us against one man, with one goal. Now it’s. It’s me against everyone. How can I save everyone by myself? There are so many guns here and people commit crimes because they genuinely want to hurt other people. How do I fight that Tikki? How can I save them?” Marinette asked numbly.

“Oh, Marinette, you do not have to save everybody. I know it’s hard remembering what happened, but you can work through these feelings now. Hawkmoth isn’t here, it is okay for you to mourn.” Tikki said softly. Marinette struggled to find a response, after a moment, she opened her mouth to say something. Jagged Stone’s latest hit suddenly blared through the silent bathroom, causing both her and the two kwamis to flinch. ‘Annoying Tall Guy is calling.’ She glanced at Tikki who nodded encouragingly. Marinette hit accept without a word and held the phone to her ear.

“Fucking finally. Listen whatever Dick and fucking Brown are telling you is complete shit. You shouldn’t listen to anything they say or go anywhere with them ever again and- Marinette? Are you there?” Marinette hit the speakerphone, and let Jason’s voice echo through the bathroom. She let her knees give out and sat on the floor, knees to chest and muttered.

“Yeah.”

“Are you okay?” Jason’s voice was suddenly full of concern.

“Not really.” Marinette said quietly.

“What happened? Where are you? Are Dick and Steph still with you? I can punch them if you want.” Jason sounded very alarmed now.

“No. I’m fine. They had to leave early. Bruce Wayne got held hostage by the Joker, soo. Yeah. I think that everyone’s okay now.” Marinette said quietly.

“Did something happen after they left? Where are you now?” Jason pressed.

“No. I’m at the apartment. I’m just. Tired.” Marinette said slowly.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jason asked next.

“Not really.” Marinette replied.

“Okay, well do you want to hear about how my trip’s goin?” Jason asked.

“Yes please.” Marinette asked, feeling small.

“Ok, so me and my business associate Roy are off doing business and other boring shit. And this little bumps into us and tries to fucking take my wallet. Naturally, I was havin none of that. So. . .”

Marinette let Jason’s voice wash over her until the numbness started to fade away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a very important question to poll the audience. This may spark extreme controversy so keep it civil folks. The question: Do the Batfam like pineapples on their pizza? If so which ones? If not, which ones? I am of the strong opinion that Marinette would not appreciate American pizza in general when compared to French pizza. I think that she will have Opinions on the matter, but I'm not sure where to draw the lines with everyone else. Aaaaand, Fight! *dives under a table for cover*


	7. A New Day

"Speaking in French"

"Speaking in English"

_“Oh Ladybug! Come out, come out, wherever you are! You can’t hide from me forever!” A distorted mechanical voice called out in a singsong voice. It was getting closer. Oh god. It was going to find her. She was going to die here. She was going to die, and Hawkmoth was going to win. Hawkmoth was going to win and make his wish and destroy the balance and she was going to die. She could hear the footsteps getting closer._

_“Oh Ladybug, I’m going to find you!” The voice called out again. Much closer. She needed to move. She glanced down at her leg, blood was pooling under it now. It hurt so bad, she was supposed to put pressure on it right? That's what you were supposed to do? Put pressure on bleeding wounds? That's what they did in the movies. She could hear the footsteps now. Oh god, it was going to find her. Pulling herself up off the floor, she tried to move, dragging the dead weight of her leg in the opposite direction of the footsteps. She couldn’t die here. She wouldn’t. She moved around a crate, staying low to keep hidden._

_“Ladybug! There you are!” The distorted voice exclaimed cheerfully, Marinette looked up into a black, faceless, mask. Then down at the weapon pointed at her. This was it. This was how she died._

_“LADYBUG!” Chat’s horrified voice screamed at the same time as a loud BANG exploded through her senses._

~

“Seriously? It will hurt more? That’s the number one sign of a broken rib? No shit it’ll hurt more.” Marinette hissed in angry French. She was already in a bad mood. Her dreams had been full of memories last night, dredged up by yesterday’s fight. When she finally worked up the effort to get out of bed, her entire torso flared in agony. Now she was stuck using freaking google to figure out if she had broken ribs. Or at least she would be if google wasn’t totally freaking useless. Her, Tikki, and Trixx had settled onto the couch space in the living room and were watching the news, hoping for a full report of the incident with Joker yesterday. So far, she had no helpful information on broken ribs, and apparently rumors that Red Robin is a meta are more important than actual facts about actual crime in Gotham’s news.

“You know what? Screw it. They’re probably fine. The suit is near invulnerable, it took most of the damage, I’m sure they’ll be fine to heal.” Marinette grouched, Tikki was in her face instantly.

“Marinette do not take this lightly. If you heal yourself with a broken bone, you know that it will heal wrong and be much worse long term.” Tikki berated her, causing Marinette to sigh deeply and wince.

“I know, it’s just frustrating. The suit usually protects me from hits. I just- Oh here we go! Let’s see.” Marinette skimmed through the Mayoclinic article on broken ribs. Several minutes of silence passed, filled with experimental torso twists, deep breaths, and painful prodding.

“Daaaaaaamn I think those jerks broke a rib.” Marinette growled, feeling fairly offended by the thought.

“So much for near physical invulnerability. Tiiiiiiki this is going to be a literal and metaphorical pain to deal with.” Marinette bemoaned.

“I’m sorry Marinette, but you need to focus. You should start with the rib. Remember what Master Fu taught you. Does the article say how to set the rib? You need it to be lined up correctly before you heal it. If it hurts too much, you could try to heal the bruising first, but I would feel better if you had as much energy as possible when fixing the bone. I know you're already tired from poor sleep.” Tikki fluttered around her with concern but remained firm.

“You’re right Tikki. Hang on a minute while I google it.” Marinette frowned when recipes for ribs took up the whole search page.

“What? Why even?” Marinette muttered incredulously. It took several re-phrasing of her query before she found what she was looking for. Apparently, youtube had step-by-step instructions for literally anything.

“Do you think that Jason has bandages in this place?” Marinette asked Tikki and Trixx who nodded in understanding and zipped off to look for a first-aid kit.

While they searched, Marinette decided that healing her ribs would be easier if her arm didn’t hurt so bad every time she moved it. She took a moment to steady her breath and concentrate, then she began to visualize. Marinette concentrated on seeing her core, a soft pink light in her center, she visualized flowing like a stream, a never-ending gentle current lazily traveling through her veins and empowering her every action. She followed the stream from her core all the way to the fingertips of her left hand. When she was sure that she had a clear path, Marinette gradually increased the output of that off chute, precious life-giving energy flowing directly under her influence. As the output increased, Marinette felt a familiar tingling sensation in her hand. When she opened her eyes, she found her hand glowing lightly.

Smiling at her success, Marinette gingerly prodded at the bruise on her right arm. She winced, and pressed down on the bruise, covering it entirely with the palm of her hand. She took a deep, measured breath, and imagined the energy concentrated in her hand infusing itself into the bone-deep bruise, repairing the damage and strengthening the flesh over a matter of minutes. When Marinette removed her hand, there was no noticeable damage to her arm and the previously inflicted skin had the pleasant ache reminiscent of a hard workout. Perfect. She let the precious energy return to its normal flow and began moving the arm experimentally. Good as new. Hunger made itself known moments later. Marinette had eaten breakfast barely an hour ago, but expending her chi frivolously had consequences. Marinette glanced down at herself. She was sitting in a sports bra and leggings, making the ugly patchwork of colors stark against her otherwise pale skin. She grimaced, this was going to take a lot of chi to repair. Could this possibly suck any worse?

A click interrupted her jinx. Marinette felt time slow down as she looked up at the front door which swung open not a moment later. Jason had a smug grin as he stepped into the apartment. Also in slow motion, Marinette watched his eyes lock onto her person. Her topless person. Her topless ugly patchwork of a person. Marinette watched in slow motion as the grin died into shocked horror, followed closely by pure unadulterated outrage. At this point, Marinette was already rolling over the top of the couch, in an attempt to block Jason’s line of sight. She landed in a crouch on the other side of the couch and turned it into a launch point as she sprung for the bedroom doorway. In another moment, she was in the bedroom, with the door slamming behind her.

“Learn how to knock!” Marinette screeched at the same time Jason shouted.

“What the fuck.” Marinette locked the bedroom door a moment before the handle shook violently.

“What the hell happened Marinette? Are you okay? Open the damn door.” Jason demanded from the other side of the door.

“I’m not decent.” Marinette said, brain catching up with her words after the fact.

“Are you serious? I don’t care if you're completely fuckin naked. Open the damn door, and tell me what the fuck happened to you.” Jason demanded from the other side of the door. Tikki and Trixx momentarily popped to mind, did Jason see them wandering around? No. A freaking unicorn could probably waltz through here right now and Jason would be too focused on the door to notice.

“Nothing happened! I tripped!” Marinette shouted and began digging through boxes of clothes that she bought online.

“Like hell you did. Open the door.” Jason demanded. Yanking an oversized shirt on, Marinette realized something. The loud angry pounding that should have been there was absent. Jason had raised his voice, but not once during this encounter had he pounded on the door, tried to break it down, or even try to jimmy the lock. He sounded really upset, but outside of trying the lock, he was waiting for her to let him in.

“Marinette! Marinette? Are you okay? Open the door.” Jason demanded urgently. She must have taken too long to reply. Stepping over the boxes that she had just torn through, Marinette opened the door a crack and peeked through.

“Are you going to keep yelling?” Marinette met his eyes and hesitated. She hadn’t seen him in a couple of days but. . . Were his eyes always that green? Against her better judgment, Marinette focused on his aura. Holy shit. The nasty vile green magic had crept its way deep into his aura. Where it tinted the severed edges before, it now saturated huge swaths of his aura. At her tone, Jason visibly steeled himself and took a deep breath. To Marinette’s shock, she watched the green magic seep backward, slowly releasing its hold. After several breaths, it had rescinded significantly.

“What happened. Tell who did it.” Jason demanded in a fake calm. Marinette knew better, despite seemingly regaining his cool, his aura was shifting wildly. Marinette really wished he would calm down. His aura was still trapped under the vile cords of magic, and all the agitated shifting and twitching was causing it to catch on the cords. Some of the tears deepened slightly as it moved trapped areas of the aura.

“You need to calm down Jason. Eat a Macaroon. Take a breath.” Marinette opened the door wider and stepped into his space. Jason’s hulking frame blocked the door, but he took a grudging step back when she gently pressed a hand against his chest. Stepping past him, Marinette walked into the kitchen where several hours of stress baking through the night had long since cooled on plates in the kitchen. She grabbed a plate covered in macaroons and set it on the table before sitting down. Jason sat down across from her.

“So how did your trip go?” Marinette asked with an incredibly fake smile. Jason’s face did a twitch.

“Fucking fantastic. What happened.” Jason shot back. Marinette pushed the plate of macaroons closer to him.

“That’s good, my week has been pretty slow, thanks for asking. I bought a bunch of cooking supplies online and broke them in last night. Try a macaroon.” Marinette said with a slightly less fake smile. Jason narrowed his eyes and slowly grabbed a bright purple macaroon from the stack. As he took a grudging bite, Marinette felt a much more genuine smile creep onto her face. Jason’s eyes widened and he glanced down at the cookie as if he had never seen a macaroon before in his life. Before her eyes, the green magic retreated a little bit further. Something smug settled in Marinette’s chest. She hadn’t even started making the healing potions yet and her macaroons were already magic. Jason glanced back up at her and gave her a suspicious look.

“Don’t you think for one second I’m letting you off the hook just cause you drugged your cookies. What happened?” Jason demanded again.

“The only drugs in my macaroons are sugar. Lots of sugar and goodness all packed into each delicious bite. Have another.” Marinette pushed the macaroon plate a little bit closer. Jason slowly took another cookie.

“Stop deflecting. Tell me what happened.” Jason demanded slowly, Marinette let Jason’s aura fade from her vision and focused on his eyes. The green had faded and they looked pretty normal once again. Lovely.

“I tripped. I’m super clumsy. I trip all the time, it’s actually pretty terrible. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’m a bit of a mess. How do the macaroons taste? They taste pretty okay to me, but I don’t know how they taste to you Americans. I made them last night for some busy work, but there’s no way that I can finish them all by myself. Do you think Dick and Steph want some? You have some other brothers, right? Maybe you can drop some off with them?” Marinette asked with a sweet smile. It was the same smile she used to convince Chloe that she always vanished because of a gluten allergy. Please don’t tell anyone, her parents would be heartbroken if they thought the work they did for a living was poisoning her. I just use the bathroom a lot. It’s super embarrassing but you believe me right? Chloe could sense her bullshit, but couldn’t see past her ‘I'm-an-innocent-snowflake-who couldn’t-hurt-a-fly’ smile.

“Don’t you dare. If Brown thinks that she can get free food out of you, she’ll move in and never leave. And stop trying to change the subject. Tell me what happened. Who do I need to fuck up?” Jason seemed genuinely alarmed at the idea of feeding Steph.

“I don’t mind her stopping by more often. If you don’t want to drop them off, I have her number, I can text her and-” Marinette started, and to her surprise, Jason interrupted her.

“DON’T- don’t text her. She can’t come over right now. She doesn’t need to know I’m back in town.” Jason said quickly.

“Why not?” Marinette asked, genuinely confused.

“Because she’s a fuckin snitch. She’ll tell the Replacement, and he’ll tell everyone else because he’s a fuckin snitch too.” Jason snarled at the thought.

“Wait, so you don’t want your family to know that you're in Gotham right now?” Marinette asked with a frown.

“That’s not- that’s not what we're talking about right now. Who did that to you?” Jason brought the subject away from his illicit activities and back to hers, waving his hand at her torso.

“I tripped. And maybe fell down the stairs a little. I’m totally okay though so it’s fine. Why don’t you want your family to know your back in town? And on that matter, why didn’t Dick and Steph know that you left town when they came here looking for you.” Marinette deflected

“They’re nosy shits who don’t need to know what I’m up to. Now tell me who I need to fuck up.” Jason replied sternly, reinforcing Marinette’s opinion that Jason was some sort of sketchy hitman.

“I can take care of myself. I’m just a little clumsy.” Marinette replied, crossing her arms haughtily. She just barely repressed the wince at the pain that came with the action.

“I’m sure you can. But that doesn’t change the fact that someone fucked you up and now I need to fuck them up. That’s how it works in Gotham.” Jason started sarcastically before getting serious and finishing with a hard look.

“Fine. I got mugged on the way back to the apartment okay? I didn’t see their face and can’t tell you who did it. But I’m _fine_.” Marinette gave in and lied. Jason didn’t look like he believed her much at all and narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“Like hell you are. Have you seen a doctor?” Jason seemed to understand that he was not getting the information he wanted and switched gears to his other concerns.

“No. I don’t need one because I’m fine.” Marinette replied firmly. Jason leaned forward and narrowed his eyes.

“Really now.”

“Yup,” Marinette replied popping the p. Quicker than Marinette expected, Jason’s hand shot forward and poked her in the side with far less force than she expected. Pain radiated through her chest and Marinette couldn’t control the full-body flinch at the action.

“Let me see.” Jason demanded.

“There’s nothing to see.” Marinette replied standing up and taking a step out of his reach.

“Like hell. Show me.” Jason looked like he was physically restraining himself from grabbing her and checking her over.

“If I show you, will you let this go?” Marinette asked, feeling like she wasn’t going to get out of this.

“No. But I’ll let you off for now.” Jason replied crossly.

“Ugh. Fine. How do you want to do this?” Marinette gave in.

“Why don’t we sit down. Couch?” Jason suggested before wandering into the bathroom. Marinette had a moment of worry for Tikki and Trixx, but trusted them to not be seen and walked over to the couch. Jason met her there a moment later with an inordinately huge first aid kit. He was definitely a sketchy hitman. Marinette walked over to the couch and took the plate of Macaroons with her. They sat down facing each other, and Jason waited expectantly for a moment before Marinette pulled her shirt up, exposing her stomach and ribs. Jason’s eyes narrowed as he got a closer look. He began gently prodding at the bruises and watched her expression.

“Where does it hurt the worst.” Jason asked slowly. As he did, he glanced past her at something and a look of outrage crossing his face.

“What the fuck is that?” Jason practically shouted, standing up. Marinette turned back, feeling her heart stop, expecting to Trixx or Tikki. Instead, what she saw was her laptop, still open to the youtube video on how to wrap broken ribs. Relief swept through her. She glanced back at Jason’s outraged face, and reached over and closed the laptop.

“Don’t worry about it.” Marinette slowly, meeting his eyes without blinking.

“You- you- You can’t just- What the _fuck_?” Jason hissed, at a loss for words.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m _fine_.” Marinette said, still not breaking eye contact.

“Like hell you are! You need a doctor. What the _fuck_? You can’t just- _Why_?” Jason finally asked desperately. That look of deep concern slowly overtook his face. Marinette was a little offended at the look on his face. Marinette is a capable sort-of-adult. She can totally take care of herself.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. Everything is _fine_. Have a Macaroon.” Tried to change the subject. Jason made a face and snatched a macaroon off the plate and stuffed it in his mouth. Was Jason a stress eater? He glared at her and sat down.

“Let me see your fucking ribs. Show me which one you think is broken.” Jason grumbled angrily. Marinette grinned at his look, and pointed out the spot. He made a noise like an angry cat a moment later.

“It’s broken. Who the _fuck_ did this?” He glared at her.

“I didn’t see their face.” Marinette shrugged and winced. Jason narrowed his eyes suspiciously. He opened his mouth to say something before closing it again. He took a long deep breath. Finally, he pulled a jar of some sort of bruise cream out of his kit and began applying it gingerly to her bruises. Marinette dutifully held still as he finished and began pulling out bandages to wrap her ribs.

“I’m not letting this go. I’m gonna find out who did this. Also, you should go see an actual doctor.” Jason grumbled quietly as he talked he wrapped her ribs.

“Yeah, no. I’m fine.” Marinette said calmly. Jason’s eyes narrowed but didn’t comment further.

It was nice to have friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all!
> 
> So I have had a pretty sucky time of it lately. I spent a week without a working computer, which left me a week behind on homework and and classes and shit. Then I had to spend the next several days catching up while still being assigned more. After that I got sick and screwed up my knee leaving me unable to walk for a couple of days. Now I am extremely burnt out and I kind of want to sleep for a week. So this story is going to be slow on updating for a while. I'll try my best but I probably won't update more than once per week or two for a little while yet.
> 
> ALSO:  
THERE IS ART!!!
> 
> The lovely Janeodoe made this super beautiful art:  
https://j-a-n-e--d-o-e.tumblr.com/post/188819912692/i-finally-got-round-to-colouring-it-in
> 
> The wonderful Grimlockprime222 this super gorgeous art:  
https://sta.sh/01piy5yffs8b


	8. A New Case

"Speaking in French" 

"Speaking in English"

**7:19 From: An Actual Dick** ‘Hey this is Dick! How are you? Have you heard anything from Jason? I’m trying to figure out when he’s getting back in town.’ 

Marinette glanced at her phone when it vibrated and choked a little. Steph programmed her and Dick’s numbers into her phone, and she was aware of the name Steph had assigned him, but getting texted made her question whether she should either: never let Steph anywhere near her phone again or hug her profusely. More data was required, Marinette decided. She took a screenshot of the text and sent it to Jason. 

**7:18 To: Annoying Tall Guy** picture sent

**7:18 To: Annoying Tall Guy** ‘are you still avoiding Dick?’ 

**7:20 From: Annoying Tall Guy** ‘Why the fuck did you give him that ID? And you can tell him that I’m still out of town.’

**7:20 To: Annoying Tall Guy** ‘Steph put his number in my phone. You shouldn’t avoid your family.’

**7:20 From: Annoying Tall Guy** ‘Do NOT let Brown anywhere near your phone that is a terrible life choice.’

**7:21 From: Annoying Tall Guy** ‘and don’t tell me what to do’

**7:22 To: Annoying Tall Guy** ‘Then stop telling me what to do and I’m not going to lie to people for no reason.’

**7:25 From: Annoying Tall Guy** ‘then ignore him thats what i do’

**7:25 To: Annoying Tall Guy** ‘Is everything okay? You seem a bit distracted.’

**7:28 From: Annoying Tall Guy** ‘ya im fine ill text yu later’

**7:28 To: Annoying Tall Guy** ‘Okay then I’ll text you later.’

**7:29 To: An Actual Dick** ‘I’m not allowed to tell you about his status or location. Sorry.’

**7:30 From: An Actual Dick** ‘R u Serious? I dont kno what he told u but its all lies! Im only looking out for his best interest.’

**7:31 To: An Actual Dick** ‘Sorry, but I have been sworn to secrecy.’

**7:32 From: An Actual Dick** ‘ :p ’

**7:33 To: An Actual Dick** ‘ :) ’

Marinette smiled down at her phone and stepped in front of the mirror in the bathroom. In the week since Jason had noticed her bruises, everything but the rib was mostly healed. She couldn’t heal them magically because of Jason checking on her daily, but her constant use of the Miraculous of Creation had given her a slightly increased natural regeneration. If Jason had noticed, he hadn’t said anything. Jason told her that her rib would take around six weeks to heal, but Marinette was fairly certain that she was ready to head out again. The worst of the nightmares had passed and she hadn’t needed to fight off the numbness in at least forty-eight hours. She was definitely ready to head back out.

“Marinette, are you sure you’re ready?” Tikki asked from where she hovered just behind her.

“You shouldn’t push yourself, you're far too important to risk yourself with reckless behavior Marinette.” Wayzz spoke up from where he hovered next to Tikki. 

“I’m fine Wayzz. I know better than to take stupid risks.” Marinette replied with a smile, Wayzz looked at her doubtfully.

“I trust your judgment Marinette, just be careful.” Wayzz said slowly. 

“Thank you Wayzz, can you go get Trixx please?” Marinette requested and he flew off with a nod through the wall to the bedroom where the miraculous box was hidden. A short moment later, Trixx appeared.

“Are you sure you’re ready?” Trixx asked with a frown and Marinette sighed deeply. Tikki giggled.

“We only ask because we care about you Marinette.” Tikki squeaked, and Trixx nodded along.

“Thank you. Both of you, but I’m fine.” Marinette smiled.

“Now, _Transform me! Merge!_” Marinette spoke, infusing the words with power and feeling one change take hold after the other. She grinned at herself in the mirror, did a little twirl, and slipped out the window. 

. . .

Timothy Drake-Wayne sat on a magnificent leather gamer chair and stared at the wall of screens in front of him. A grainy image of a dark red figure occupied the largest screen, with bank schematics and a list of time-stamped triggered alarms on the surrounding screens. There was a new player in Gotham. The file that Tim and Bruce had started after the incident™ a week ago. It was annoyingly empty. The suspected list of abilities contained everything from magic, to shapeshifting, to bulletproof. The list of suspected races included both Kryptonian and Martian. The list of possible training ranged from highly trained to none at all depending on the species. They did not have enough information to draw any conclusions yet. 

The figure could realistically appear as Red Robin, get shot and not take damage, and move at enhanced speeds. What’s worse, there were two of them. In Gotham. Bruce does Not like nonhuman entities in Gotham. Bruce also does not like people impersonating Batman. Both of these incidents happening at once was enough for the Batman to elevate the priority of this case. That, and brood. A brooding Bruce is always a Bruce that should be avoided. Tim blinked and stared at the overflowing pile of empty garbage and coffee cups. Hadn’t he just emptied that out? Maybe he shouldn’t- naw he was fine. Tim pushed off the desk with enough force to send him rolling all the way over to the mini-fridge a handful of feet away. Tim opened it and frowned.

Where there should have been rows of monster and coffee cans, there were rows of emptiness. A lone bottle of mustard remained. How did this happen? Where did they all go? Where did that mustard come from? His mini fridge was nearly as empty the void where his soul should be. Nearly as empty as Steph’s stomach after 24 hours without waffles. Nearly as empty as Damian’s threats when Dick glomps him. <strike>Nearly as empty as Batman’s pockets after he goes on a date with Catwoman</strike>. Getting up in a haze, Tim made the hike back to his kitchen and found no cans of sweet, sweet, caffeine in his sanctuary. Tim glanced at his coffee maker. It was still broken since Dick’s last and final visit to Tim’s home. He was not welcome here anymore, not after his crimes against coffee. With more and more desperation, Tim searched his home. How could this be? His sanctuary was dry. Dry as a desert. Dry Alfred’s humor. Dry as Bruce’s face after a meeting with the JLA. Dry as . . . well, things. Tim’s brain functionality was tanking exponentially as the last vestiges of caffeine left his system. This was not acceptable. Shit. Tim glanced out the dark window, then at the clock. It was 12:36 AM. There was an all-night convenience store a couple of blocks away. It wouldn’t be the first time Tim bought out their entire supply of monster and Starbucks. It wouldn’t be the last either. Grabbing an empty messenger bag and a coat, Tim set out on his mission. 

…

Marinette was on her way back to her apartment when she heard a high pitched scream. Changing direction she raced toward the source. Moments later, she found the source. Three unconscious men littered alleyway. A relatively short figure stood in a hoodie and jean, pinning a fourth figure against the wall. 

“Apologize!” The hooded figure growled furiously. Marinette focused on them and had a minor heart attack. That was Red Robin. Timothy Drake-Wayne.

“Sorry man.” The much taller man cowered.

“Not to me you plebeian. Apologize to the coffee.” Drake-Wayne hissed in fury. At that moment Marinette noticed the cans of Starbucks and monster littering the alley. Taking another look at his aura, Marinette noticed that it was dulled significantly with what she suspected was sleep deprivation. Oh dear. 

“You’re crazy man.” The cowering man sputtered. Drake-Wayne tsked and knocked him out. He moved around the alley, retrieving a fallen messenger bag and picking up the cans. There were at least thirty of them. Drake-Wayne didn’t seem to care in the least that most of them landed in or rolled through questionable Gotham-alley substances. After picking them all, he pulled out his phone and made a call.

“Yes. I would like to report a crime. I was mugged in an alley. Yes, I’m okay. No, I would like to remain anonymous.” Drake relayed his location and hung up. He glanced around the alley before sighing and moving on his way. Marinette followed curiously, she was currently invisible to the naked eye, so there shouldn’t be a problem. Drake-Wayne barely made it a single block before she realized that he was subtly checking his reflection in every window or metallic surface he passed. He knew someone was following him. How the heck? She watched as he pulled out his phone and send a text. He kept walking for another block before turning into a building and vanishing from sight. She waited for several heartbeats, before turning to leave. She turned just in time to see Robin land silently on the roof. She froze and reminded herself that she was invisible to everyone but apparently Drake-Wayne. Robin looked around once, before moving stealthily to the edge of the roof. She focused on him and nearly saw red. It was that damned vile green magic again. If she thought Red Robin was drenched, Robin was ten times worse. His aura still held several colors in it, which was something Marinette had only seen in youth. Children have not fully developed their personalities, so their auras reflected that. The dominant color was a bright sunflower yellow, reflecting someone with strong principles, loyalty, and honor. A secondary raging dark red was also fairly prevalent, the darkness in the color representing something in his history that Marinette didn’t really want to think about. Muting all of the colors, however, was that vile green magic. As far as she could tell, the magic had never been used on him, but he had been in its presence far more often than any child should have. When she figured out who was using the magic, they were going to have words. So. many. words. Robin broke her focus when he touched his ear, looked around, and murmured,

“Everything’s clear in my section.” As he spoke, Marinette silently began moving away. Despite not making a sound, Robin’s eyes locked on her and he squinted. He stared at her spot as she froze, and he very slowly reached a hand up to his mask. He tapped it twice, before moving on. She let herself breathe again. She started to move again when her instincts told her to _move_. Marinette launched herself to the side just in time to avoid Robin’s katana. Without thinking, she let out a startled yelp. Robin charged again, very clearly knowing where she was even though she was supposed to be invisible. The short vigilante narrowed his eyes angrily and took another swing with his katana.

“Reveal yourself criminal.” He ordered, following her as she tried to dodge away. 

“Um no. Definitely no. And I’m not a criminal. I’m a fox.” Marinette replied and kind of regretted speaking before she had even finished. Robin took another swing at her, and only years of fencing practice with Kagami and Adri-. Only years of fencing practice allowed her to parry the swing with her flute. Next, she turned a dodge into a roll, putting space between her and Robin. 

“I do not care what you refer to yourself as. You are up to nefarious purposes and I will arrest you.” Robin’s words almost made her pause.

“Wow. You are a rude child. How would you feel if I just disregarded your personal identity? And I’m not up to any nefarious purposes. I was just minding my own business up until you attacked me.” Marinette replied and parried another swing.

“I am _not_ a child. I am Robin. You are clearly up to no good.” Robin snarled.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Robin. I’ll call you by your name because unlike some people, I respect people’s personal identification. Names are important. They define who you are.” Marinette couldn’t help but snark him as they traded blows. Robin was nearly as good as Kagami. Marinette felt herself smile at the familiarity of it all. Gosh, she missed sparring with Kagami and Adri-. Marinette felt her smile die. Time to end this. She shifted the flute to her dominant hand, parrying and blocking one-handed as pulled out her yo-yo. She launched it off to the side as she dived and rolled out of Robin’s path. She didn’t know how Robin was seeing through her illusion, but she hoped that it would hold at least enough for him to miss the thin line of yo-yo string weaving around the roof. As soon as she laid the trap, Marinette went on the offensive, surprising Robin enough with her charge that he backed up a couple of steps. Just enough to trip over the invisible line. With a victorious smirk, she pressed forward as he fell, shoving him back and throwing a handful of dirt in his face. Moving with her momentum, she kept moving past him, yank her yo-yo to detangle, and come with her. As Robin hit the ground, temporarily blinded, Marinette was already flying off the roof and swinging away full speed. Just before she left hearing range, she heard an outraged shout. Marinette let the victorious smirk grow into a full-blown grin as she left Robin in the dust. 

… 

Tim sat in his nest, sanitized coffee can in hand, and frowned. He was patched into the comms. Robin and Batman were nearby when he called for backup. They split up to search for his tail. He hadn’t seen them, but Tim always knew when he was being followed. Jason liked to say that stalkers were good at sensing their own kind, but Tim liked to call Jason a homicidal asshole. Maybe both were true, maybe neither were. That wasn’t the point. Where was he going with this? Right. Tim was being followed. Robin called in the all-clear for his search area, about thirty seconds before Tim heard sounds of fighting through the comms. Batman was already on the way to the location, and Tim did not want to follow as Red Robin when an unknown was following his civilian persona. He heard Damian insult the stalker a couple of times. His and Batman’s requests for more information were ignored as the hot headed punk did battle. Tim pulled up the feed from Damian’s mask and found he was currently overlaying his vision with heat signatures. Despite the camera not picking up a person, the heat vision picked up the outline a figure with a slim build. The audio picked up their banter and Tim snorted. She was clearly fighting with some sort of sword or stick, but that wasn’t picked up by the heat vision. 

Tim had a flashback to the invisible ninja that he had thought Ra’s sent after him. Shit. Tim needed more coffee to deal with this. Just before Batman could reach Robin’s location, Robin fell and the figure lunged at him. Tim stood in alarm as Robin went down. 

“Robin are you okay?” Tim demanded, instead of replying, Damian shouted in rage and was clearing the dirt from his face. Spinning around, the figure was gone, and Batman arrived on the scene. 

“Robin, report.” Batman demanded. 

“That invisible _harlot_ used underhanded tactics to down me and flee the premises. I did not see where she went.” Robin hissed furiously. 

“Robin, calm down and tell me what happened.” Batman ordered. Robin took a deep breath and began giving a more detailed accounting of what happened. Tim took several sips of coffee and waited as the two checked the scene for evidence and then searched the area for any clues. Tim sent a report over to Oracle so that she would make sure everyone had their heat sensors up to date and make sure that everyone used them too. 

Tim connected the report to the bank incident and the invisible ninjas incident. By the time Batman got back to the cave and got Robin to bed, it was just past 3 AM. He pinged Tim to see if he was awake. Of course Tim was awake, sleep is for the weak. Tim is not weak. Tim answered the voice call from the Batcave.

“Red Robin.” Tim answered.

“You think these cases are connected?” Batman requested,

“Yeah, I thought that they were one of Ra’s originally, they still might be. But I was followed both in my civilian and vigilante identities. It can’t be a coincidence that three new players with unknown abilities and motives appear at the same time all with connections to me or Red Robin.” Tim explained his reasoning.

“What do you want to do about it?” Batman asked and Tim took a moment to remind himself that this wasn’t an impersonator. Alfred had staged an intervention several months ago. He sat the whole batfamily down and made everyone agree that they would ask Batman for help when they needed it, and Batman wouldn’t steamroll everyone and disregard their opinions on the case in exchange. Alfred and Dick were working together to spearhead this operation and it was honestly a deadly combination. There had been several explosive fights since this operation began, and Tim had planned to agree to and ignore their advice, but then he got stabbed. It honestly wasn’t that big of a deal, and Tim had it handled, but the stupid wound got infected. He was handling it and would have been fine, but Tim hadn’t expected Jason of all people to be a snitch. Once Alfred found out, so did Dick, then Steph and Cass found out from Dick, Damian heard from one of them, and it spiraled until he was dragged back to the manor against his will by Dick and Cass and finally Bruce found out. One more explosive argument later, Bruce was suddenly on board with getting his children to tell him when they needed help and Alfred bullied the rest of the batfamily into behaving. Without Bruce contradicting Alfred’s demands, and Dick spying for him, the rest of the family fell in line. Well, except Jason. But Jason’s life goal was to contradict everyone so no one is really that surprised. Tim was a little bit miffed about the whole thing honestly. Around the time he had gotten stabbed, Steph had nearly gotten blown up, Damian got kidnapped, and everyone suspected Jason got shot when dealing with an entire gang by himself. Yet no one mentioned their faux pas, only his. Sure the infection had festered for three weeks before anyone else had discovered it, but Tim was treating it and it was definitely getting better. Alfred was just overeacting. 

“I was thinking that I could borrow whoever’s closest and confront them if they follow me again.” Tim decided

“Black Bat should be back in town in two days, I can ask her to partner with you until we have more information on this.” Bruce suggested. Tim thought on it for a moment. He didn’t really want a partner, but Cass is great and Bruce would probably make sure that he was nearby if Tim needed backup until this was resolved if he didn’t accept the backup. 

“That could work.” Tim agreed, making sure Bruce couldn’t hear how reluctant he was. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Tim is hard and this ship is much slower than I expected, but it will sail or will die trying.  
Disclaimer (sort of): I've decided that Damian is too young for romance, and while I enjoy reading chat salt, there will be no chat salt here.  
Also Ages:
> 
> Alfred: Immortal  
Bruce: 36? (who the heck even knows)  
Dick: 22  
Jason: 19  
Cass: 18-19ish?  
Tim: 17  
Marinette: 17  
Steph: 17  
Damian: 12

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Multi-Hero](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24414241) by [Sar61_Sanz6](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sar61_Sanz6/pseuds/Sar61_Sanz6)


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